Article Posted on : - Jan 16, 2012

Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale are in contention for the mega defence deal.

NEW DELHI (PTI): The winner of the multi-billion dollar deal to procure 126 combat planes for the Indian Air Force is expected to be announced in the next ten days.

European EADS Eurofighter and Dassault Rafale are in the final race for the Air Force global tender for the Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA).

The process to determine the L1 (lowest bidder) is under progress and is expected to be decided in another ten days, top IAF sources said here Sunday.

As per the defence procurement procedure, the lowest bidder is considered to be the winner of the contract.

The two European firms were competing with American companies Lockheed Martin and Boeing, Russian MiG Corporation and Swedish Saab, for the tender.

But apart from Eurofighter and Desault, the rest were evicted from the tender by the Defence Ministry after field evaluation trials.

On November 4 last year, Defence ministry had opened the commercial bid of the two firms left in the race and since then has been busy in determining the lowest bidder.

The Eurofighter bid is backed by four partner nations -- Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom -- while the Dassault Rafale is backed by the French Government.

Asked about the Army's plans to raise aviation brigades including attack helicopters at corps level, the Air Force sources said, this would be a very costly proposition as a lot of money would be required to raise such brigades.

On January 12, Army Chief General V K Singh had said that the force is planning to raise Aviation Brigade at all its thirteen corps.