IAF Insists on Indian Weapons for MRFA, Places Onus on OEMs

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has signaled a major shift in its acquisition strategy for the long-awaited Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) tender.

Deputy Chief Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit has categorically stated that the successful bidder for the 114 fighter jet contract must give utmost importance to the integration of Indian weapons.

Enhancing Domestic Capabilities​

This move highlights the IAF's desire to boost self-reliance in the defense sector. By ensuring that the selected fighter jets are compatible with Indian-made weapons, the IAF aims to reduce its dependence on foreign suppliers and strengthen its domestic armament industry.

The IAF has held extensive discussions with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) competing for the MRFA tender, underlining this critical requirement.

No Restrictions on Weapon Choice​

Sources close to the program indicate that the IAF has been firm on the point that OEMs cannot dictate weapon choices for the procured fighter jets. This insistence on unrestricted weapon selection is crucial for India's strategic flexibility and allows it to tap into its growing defense manufacturing sector.

Source Code Access and Financial Responsibility​

Importantly, the IAF has also stated that if OEMs hesitate to share necessary source codes, the financial cost of integrating Indian weapons will not be borne by India.

This places the responsibility squarely on the bidding companies to collaborate and demonstrate the necessary transparency for seamless integration.

A Factor in the Upcoming RFP​

The Request for Proposal (RFP) to international OEMs is expected to be issued soon, and the IAF's emphasis on domestic weapons integration will undoubtedly be a decisive factor in the tender.

OEMs that exhibit a commitment to collaborate and integrate Indian weaponry will likely hold a significant competitive edge.

Implications and Considerations​

The IAF's strong stance on weapons integration aligns with the Indian government's 'Make in India' initiative, promoting self-sufficiency in defense production.

However, the demand for source code access could prove a point of contention with some OEMs, potentially impacting technology transfer agreements.

The final outcome of the MRFA tender will not only shape the IAF's future capabilities but also shed light on the evolving dynamics between India and global defense manufacturers.

 

[charminar_waale_ismail_bhai]

What is the point of this article?
Seems like recycled news to fill space.

 

[sanket]

selling platform for One Time But Milking the Money throught the Life span of Fighter jet.Real profit lies in selling weapons for entire Life span of Fighter jet .Rafale Lacks Ant-radiation Missile Rudram is perfect weapon to b integrate on it .Not only Indigenous ,Brahmos-NG is Indo-Russian . it too can b Integrated on MRFA winner .But Third party weapon Integration too in WVR Pyton -5 which is deadliest it should also b integrated . One of most Terrible upgrade was Mirage-2000 Today it is falling behind the Time . it Lack even 80 kM plus BVR Missile .Lack of AESA Radar too.

 

[Ashutosh]

MRFA is de@d.
No need to post useless articles

 

[shivkumar sinha]

MRFA is dead for all practical purposes as the first aircraft from this project,if ever fructified ,will come after 8 years. That will be the period when Tejas Mark-2 will be inducting and AMCA will be ready for induction. Only possibility is for an additional tranche of 36 Rafales from G to G deal.

 

[Pad UwU]

Wake me up, when MRFA is real🙃😜🤭

 

[Akshat]

MRFA is de@d.
No need to post useless articles

It’s a live tender. And with the massive delay in Tejas mk2 due to ineptitude of ADA and HAL, it becomes all the more urgent,

 

[Akshat]

MRFA is dead for all practical purposes as the first aircraft from this project,if ever fructified ,will come after 8 years. That will be the period when Tejas Mark-2 will be inducting and AMCA will be ready for induction. Only possibility is for an additional tranche of 36 Rafales from G to G deal.

It will come in 3 years. As for Mk2 and AMCA, they ain’t coming in this decade or the next.

 

[Vijigishu ( विजिग्शु )]

MRFA is dead for all practical purposes as the first aircraft from this project,if ever fructified ,will come after 8 years. That will be the period when Tejas Mark-2 will be inducting and AMCA will be ready for induction. Only possibility is for an additional tranche of 36 Rafales from G to G deal.

After 8 years, AMCA at max will be in prototype testing stage. And that is AT MAX. Since it'll be a new design, it will take ages to finally come into induction, that means finalized product and start of mass production.

 

[ABHIJIT APSINGIKAR]

selling platform for One Time But Milking the Money throught the Life span of Fighter jet.Real profit lies in selling weapons for entire Life span of Fighter jet .Rafale Lacks Ant-radiation Missile Rudram is perfect weapon to b integrate on it .Not only Indigenous ,Brahmos-NG is Indo-Russian . it too can b Integrated on MRFA winner .But Third party weapon Integration too in WVR Pyton -5 which is deadliest it should also b integrated . One of most Terrible upgrade was Mirage-2000 Today it is falling behind the Time . it Lack even 80 kM plus BVR Missile .Lack of AESA Radar too.

Not quite! France being a part of NATO uses a NATO compliant STANAG 4626 standard for avionics architecture. As such, its compatible to be outfitted with just about any allied weapon system that confirms to the standard. Essentially Rafale in French service can be outfitted to carry older AGM-88 HARM or ALARM. More recently with Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile Extended Range (AARGM-ER) entering production, they can carry them as well.

 

[shivkumar sinha]

It will come in 3 years. As for Mk2 and AMCA, they ain’t coming in this decade or the next.

Till today, MRFA has not crossed even RFI stage . The tortoise speed with which government is moving, it can go well beyond 5 years to sign a contract. It is still under debate whether IAF should go for a limited 2-3 squadrons,or full compliment of 108 fighters. Selection of fighters - Rafales or a new type of fighters - is still far away.If the contract is made with Dassault, the company is pre occupied with many existing orders . Establishment of a new assembly line in India appears to be far fetched. I have predicted 8 years for first delivery of MRFA in best case scenario . It may go well beyond this . Tejas Mark-2 prototype is scheduled to fly in two years. Induction of these fighters in early 2030 s is highly likely as most of the technologies expected to go into Tejas Mark-2 are available. First iteration of AMCA will arrive within a decade. India can choose to integrate more advanced sensors ,fusion and other technologies in next iteration of AMCA Mark-2.

 

[Rajesh]

Since the mrfa (if it happens) will be made in india with technology transfer (eliminating spares import)we should make sure that 1.source code is shared so that indian can integrate Indian weapons like what we do with su-30 ourselves.2. make sure that engine is made in india in a similar deal to the proposed amca engine deal. Make sure that the engine is suitable for mk1A also eliminating one more variety in engines to maintain,the winner of last mrfa trials rafale and typhoon both have engines suitable for Tejas(rafale m88-3)& typhoon ej200 or else 200+ Tejas with imported engines and spares can be a case of interest for human rights groups,free search brigade,hunger index groups etc.

 

[Ashutosh]

It’s a live tender. And with the massive delay in Tejas mk2 due to ineptitude of ADA and HAL, it becomes all the more urgent,

Dassault currently has a backlog of a almost a decade. If it's signed today only....the first Rafale IAF would get would be a locally produced Rafale.

Not just that, the production rate at max. would be 6-8 airframes/ year.

MRFA is dead and shall be dropped. Tejas mk2 in any case is much feasible even if it is delayed by 7 years afterall it's an indigenous fighter, not to mention LCA mk2 which is necessarily a MRFA,would be the most cost effective for IAF needs.

MRFA was an urgent requirement but the tender itself is competing with P75I and MMRCA to set a record of the most delayed tenders.
"Welcome to d@mn Indian democracy and bureaucracy"

 

[Arz786]

Till today, MRFA has not crossed even RFI stage . The tortoise speed with which government is moving, it can go well beyond 5 years to sign a contract. It is still under debate whether IAF should go for a limited 2-3 squadrons,or full compliment of 108 fighters. Selection of fighters - Rafales or a new type of fighters - is still far away.If the contract is made with Dassault, the company is pre occupied with many existing orders . Establishment of a new assembly line in India appears to be far fetched. I have predicted 8 years for first delivery of MRFA in best case scenario . It may go well beyond this . Tejas Mark-2 prototype is scheduled to fly in two years. Induction of these fighters in early 2030 s is highly likely as most of the technologies expected to go into Tejas Mark-2 are available. First iteration of AMCA will arrive within a decade. India can choose to integrate more advanced sensors ,fusion and other technologies in next iteration of AMCA Mark-2.

If the GOI takes long to sign the contract and then the aircraft delivery is long drawn out, then chances are that a non-NDA government, if gets elected in the meantime ( 2029 or 2034), they will scrap the deal and IAF will be in a pickle !

 

[Arz786]

After 8 years, AMCA at max will be in prototype testing stage. And that is AT MAX. Since it'll be a new design, it will take ages to finally come into induction, that means finalized product and start of mass production.

I think at present the possibilities are as follows:

1. LCA Mark 1A (83 aircrafts) delivery should be completed by 2029
2. LCA Mark 1A (97 aircrafts) delivery may be completed by 2034 ( assuming HAL delivers 24 aircrafts per year that they have promised)
3. LCA Mk-2 delivery should start from 2030 but a new production line needs to be set up since existing production lines for LCA Mk 1A will be busy fulfilling 97 aircrafts order. 108 LCA Mk-2 delivery should be completed by 2035 so that Jaguar/ MIG 29/ Mirage 2K phase out does not leave big gap. But there is a possibility of time overrun. More LCA Mk-2 or improved Mk-3 should immediately follow.
4. AMCA may be ready to enter series production from 2035/2036.
5. MRFA : Local assembly without putting any strain on HAL's current and expected commitments is preferred. MRFA (114 aircrafts) should be in service by 2035 ( at least that should be the goal).

I may be wrong. But if the above scenario plays out, that would be alright.

 

[Sandeep]

The MRFA is dead as India isn't going to spend over $20 billion plus weapons costs which will be very expensive as well. Also they still have to buy or upgrade about 100 basic trainer, 100+ intermediate trainer, 100+ HLFT advanced trainer, 100 Dhruv helicopter, 100+ Prachand helicopter, 400 IMRH, 200 armed IMRH, 100+ swarm drones, 200 Tejas MK1A jets, 200+ Tejas MK2, 200+ AMCA, 200+ Archer NG, 12 Sukhoi jets, 100+ loiter drones, 100+ cargo drones,

Then they have to upgrade the Super Sukhoi, upgrade the Mig 29 again, upgrade the Mirage 2000 or buy more for spares again, Heron drones, searcher drones, upgrade 200+ L70 guns.

Then they still need to buy 5 regiment of Akash and 2-4 Akash NG, 5 regiment of LR-SAM.

So looking at the amount of orders or upgrades the Air Force makes over the next 20 years will cost at least $60-70 billion and maybe more if you include inflation but most of that will be spent on indigenously developed and manufactured jets, helicopters, drones, loiter munitions and missiles. The MRFA would be the most expensive part of that total expenditure the Air Force needs to make.

 

[shivkumar sinha]

If the GOI takes long to sign the contract and then the aircraft delivery is long drawn out, then chances are that a non-NDA government, if gets elected in the meantime ( 2029 or 2034), they will scrap the deal and IAF will be in a pickle !

IAF is now focusing on indigenous solutions. In next ten years Bharat will stop looking for any foreign 4.5/5 th generation fighters. If non NDA government takes power , national security will be in peril anyway.

 

[Akshat]

Dassault currently has a backlog of a almost a decade. If it's signed today only....the first Rafale IAF would get would be a locally produced Rafale.

Not just that, the production rate at max. would be 6-8 airframes/ year.

MRFA is dead and shall be dropped. Tejas mk2 in any case is much feasible even if it is delayed by 7 years afterall it's an indigenous fighter, not to mention LCA mk2 which is necessarily a MRFA,would be the most cost effective for IAF needs.

MRFA was an urgent requirement but the tender itself is competing with P75I and MMRCA to set a record of the most delayed tenders.
"Welcome to d@mn Indian democracy and bureaucracy"

Again, wrong facts. Last year Dassault made 13 jets. This year, by March, they had already gone up to 2 per month as per their CEO. The guidance for this year is to reach 3 per year. That’s 36 per year. And the CEO has said that they can easily jump to 4 per month or 48 per year.

As for mk2, it’s not coming before 2040 at least. So no point talking about it.

 

[Tanishq Bafila]

I think at present the possibilities are as follows:

1. LCA Mark 1A (83 aircrafts) delivery should be completed by 2029
2. LCA Mark 1A (97 aircrafts) delivery may be completed by 2034 ( assuming HAL delivers 24 aircrafts per year that they have promised)
3. LCA Mk-2 delivery should start from 2030 but a new production line needs to be set up since existing production lines for LCA Mk 1A will be busy fulfilling 97 aircrafts order. 108 LCA Mk-2 delivery should be completed by 2035 so that Jaguar/ MIG 29/ Mirage 2K phase out does not leave big gap. But there is a possibility of time overrun. More LCA Mk-2 or improved Mk-3 should immediately follow.
4. AMCA may be ready to enter series production from 2035/2036.
5. MRFA : Local assembly without putting any strain on HAL's current and expected commitments is preferred. MRFA (114 aircrafts) should be in service by 2035 ( at least that should be the goal).

I may be wrong. But if the above scenario plays out, that would be alright.

HAL production capacity will increase from 24 to 32 once agreement with GE for local production of GE F404 starts in India , This will conclude all Mk1A to be delivered by 2032. ( possibility )

The HAL production facilities will be upgraded by the MOD in years to come to ramp up the production of Mk1A .

MRFA should be put on hold there is no need for RFI , stretch it considering progress rate in TEDBF , so that Airforce can order for Airforce variant of TEDBF ( it will be advanced than Rafale F4 as it will incorporate technology from AMCA ) , order 36 Rafale F4 for stopgap measure in 2025..

 

[Anant]

I think at present the possibilities are as follows:

1. LCA Mark 1A (83 aircrafts) delivery should be completed by 2029
2. LCA Mark 1A (97 aircrafts) delivery may be completed by 2034 ( assuming HAL delivers 24 aircrafts per year that they have promised)
3. LCA Mk-2 delivery should start from 2030 but a new production line needs to be set up since existing production lines for LCA Mk 1A will be busy fulfilling 97 aircrafts order. 108 LCA Mk-2 delivery should be completed by 2035 so that Jaguar/ MIG 29/ Mirage 2K phase out does not leave big gap. But there is a possibility of time overrun. More LCA Mk-2 or improved Mk-3 should immediately follow.
4. AMCA may be ready to enter series production from 2035/2036.
5. MRFA : Local assembly without putting any strain on HAL's current and expected commitments is preferred. MRFA (114 aircrafts) should be in service by 2035 ( at least that should be the goal).

I may be wrong. But if the above scenario plays out, that would be alright.

Let me fix that:

1. 83 Tejas Mk 1A order will be completed at some point after 2029 unless HAL is able to achieve miracles.
2. 97 Tejas Mk 1A order is highly unlikely to be completed by 2033-35.
3. Tejas Mk 2 may enter production around 2032-33 at the earliest. The 108 Tejas Mk 2 order will almost certainly not be completed before 2040, since Mk 1A production will also be going on in parallel, and a lot of suppliers may not be able to scale up fast enough.
4. There will be no Tejas Mk 3. There may be a block improvement on theTejas Mk 2, but that will only give you a Tejas Mk 2, not a Mk 3. At the extreme, there may be some form of Tejas Mk 2A, though even that is unlikely-ish.
5. AMCA may enter series production in 2035-37 if the present timelines are maintained and everything goes to plan. I would honestly say we should assume that timeline to be 2038-39.
6. MRFA will only progress only the bright sparks in the MoD give the AoN, following which the RfP etc. can proceed. Best case scenario today is that the MRFA contract can be signed in late 2026 or early 2028, assuming the IAF has a winner in mind already. In that case, the first India-made aircraft can roll out around 2035, with the last aircraft entering service around 2040-42. Add delays to that as you see fit.