Last week, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said buying 90 less Rafale fighter jets than the 126 planned earlier would save him money to buy more Tejas Light Combat Aircraft for the India Air Force.
In a candid admission, the Indian Air Force on Thursday said that given its depleting strength, it does not have the adequate numbers to "fully execute" an air campaign in case of a two-front war involving Pakistan and China simultaneously.
Delivery of a great operational machine must not get affected to settle political scores, says Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retd).
'The greatest loss from replacing the 126 Rafale proposal with the 2016 contract for 36 Rafales might not be the extra money paid, but the opportunity that India's aerospace industry lost of obtaining access to critical aviation technologies and manufacturing skills.'
The IAF faces a 'fighter gap' of 13 squadrons. The IAF would be caught seriously short in a two-front war -- the worst-case planning contingency in which China and Pakistan attack India simultaneously, points out Ajai Shukla.
Indian Air Force chief, Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne, has sugarcoated his bid to import 106 basic trainer aircraft from Pilatus Aircraft Co, by proposing that Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd build the trainers in Bengaluru to blueprints supplied by the Swiss company.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar says global aircraft makers will have to get approval from their own governments to transfer technology and build jets in India.
The IAF chief stressed on the ongoing development of advanced landing ground along the Himalayas.
SAAB's Sea Gripen constitutes a new option as the INS Vikrant's light fighter
NSA Doval, defence top brass brief Union ministers on the deal to help them counter Opposition charges.
As the Cabinet approves the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets, Nitin Gokhale/Bharatshakti.in reveals how India brought down the price of the Rafale deal.
'It is hard to justify $225 million a plane for an increasingly obsolete mission.' The purchase of the 36 Rafales has changed little for the IAF.
There is considerable discomfort within the defence ministry about the Rafale deal.
The integration of the Rafale jets will allow the IAF to hit targets inside both Pakistan and across the northern and eastern borders while still staying within India's territory.
'There is no secrecy clause to the price (of the aircraft).' 'There can be secrecy on the capability of the nuclear payload of aircraft and things like that, but the price is hardly a secret.'
Even as three Rafale fighters line up in Bengaluru for eye-popping aerobatics displays at the Aero India 2015 exhibition this week, senior ministry of defence sources say the proposal to buy the French fighter is "effectively dead".
India's cumbersome arms procurement procedures and a plodding Ministry of Defence bureaucracy have long been blamed for shortfalls in combat capability. Now there is another, more worrying, reason - a growing crisis of funds, magnified by the lack of tri-service coordination.
Is the price of one fighter Rs 681 crore? Rs 686 crore? Rs 703 crore? Rs 1,063 crore? Rs 1,225 crore?
An ill-informed public narrative centres on expensive weapons platforms instead of the little things that would improve capability.
In the light of India's increasingly 'darkening' threat environment and the convergence of strategic interests between China and Pakistan, the IAF's declining combat capabilities are a cause for concern, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
'India placed the order, primarily due to the IAF's 'critical operational necessity'.' 'The complexity of the IAF's requirements delayed the process for months.' 'It is these requirements which cannot be made public.' 'Can you image Indian politicians publicly discussing the pros and the cons of such military equipment?' 'It would provide India's enemies with indications about the IAF's tactical plans in case of a conflict.' 'It is crucial that they should remain secret to protect India's defence preparedness,' explains Claude Arpi.
'The defence minister is stuck in the trivial and frivolous with a clerical mindset merely to prove his so-called 'honesty" overlooking the primary aim of adding sufficient military muscle and firepower to the defence services,' says Bharat Verma.
The IAF has just 33 squadrons, 9 short of the 42 squadrons needed to tackle China and Pakistan together, says Ajai Shukla.
Why did Modi bypass the Cabinet before he committed India to the Rafale deal?
The attorney general admitted that there is no sovereign guarantee, but asserted that there is a letter of comfort by France which would be as good as a governmental guarantee.
The conservative bureaucracy that influences the political masters is clearly not concerned with the vision documents prepared by defence chiefs to bring India's military into a state of preparedness, says Seema Mustafa
India's enemies be warned: The Rafale deal will bring a sea change in India's defence preparedness.
The French have been rewarded for their obstinacy with exactly what they wanted -- an order for fully built Rafales without technology transfer.
'Just how strong were the ties between the world's largest and oldest democracies that an incident involving a diplomat and a maid led to anger threatening the relationship itself? Or had the relationship been weakening in the past few years, masked by the empty symbolism of State dinners, asks Devesh Kapur.
'Under the present Defence Procurement Procedure, it would have been a nightmare, and a long, long one at that, to build 108 Rafales in India. Modi realised this and took the wise decision, though it is a definitive setback for his Make in India scheme.'
'It appears that Prime Minister Modi has to undo 50 years of State monopoly in the defence sector during which public undertakings like HAL or DRDO monopolised defence production and development with disastrous consequences.'
Mr Rahul Gandhi himself has given seven different prices in different speeches with regard to the Rafale, that is the 2007 offer.
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