Rafale and Eurofighter side by side in India
La Tribune , Nov 6
Commercial offerings of both companies would be very close to each other.
Manufacturers of both fighters still competing to equip the 126 aircraft the Indian Air Force (Air Force), Rafale ( Dassault Aviation ) and Eurofighter ( EADS , BAE Systems and Italy's Finmeccanica), are engaged in a big commercial battle to reign in the Indian skies. According to several sources, the offers of Dassault Aviation and the European consortium would be very close to each other. What is already a big surprise, the Rafale was generally much cheaper (10% to 15% on average) than the Eurofighter in previous tenders in which they were competing one against the other.
The three industrial partners in the Eurofighter program would therefore have made great efforts on the price of the unit to stay competitive with the Rafale [...]. "They have accepted monstrous sacrifices," says one industrialist. "The two manufacturers will see much clearer at the end of the week after a week of work and comparison of the bids," said another industrialist interviewed by "La Tribune" (see below) . However, even if the commercial offerings are really close, the Rafale keep an advantage operationally and technically. Trials of the Indian Air Force placed (it) ahead of Eurofighter.
Colossal challenge
Another trend that seems to emerge is that both offers are superior to the original budget agreed by New Delhi, estimated at $ 11 billion (8 billion euros). According to the Indian press, quoting an anonymous government officials, the Ministry of Defence would have almost doubled it to about $ 20 billion (14.5 billion euros), in particualr to take into account related contracts to support the aircrafts.