Commercial Mmrca Bids Open: India opened the financial bids of the two fighters left in the fray for the MMRCA deal, but promptly declared it would take at least 2-3 weeks to declare the eventual winner since tons of data had to be computed. The overall value of the deal is set to exceed $20 billion, but the MoD refused to say anything concrete. It is learnt that the unit flyaway cost or direct acquisition cost of each Eurofighter TYPHOON was higher than the Dassault RAFALE fighter, both of which fall in the $80-$110 million bracket, reportedly much costlier than the American, Russian and Swedish jets earlier eliminated after exhaustive technical evaluation by IAF pilots. But the unit flyaway cost will not be the only factor to determine the lowest bidder (L-1). The MoD will also take into account "life-cycle costs" or the cost of operating the fighters over a 40-year period, with 6,000 hours of flying. Besides, there are costs of the transfer of technology (ToT) since the first 18 jets will be bought from abroad in a flyaway condition, while the rest 108 will be manufactured in India, under licence, by HAL. "The bids were opened in front of the Indian contract negotiating committee, comprising MoD, IAF, finance, production and quality assurance officials, as well as representatives from French Dassault and EADS (backed by the UK, Germany, Spain, and Italy). It will take a few' weeks to examine and evaluate their commercial proposals to arrive at a verifiable cost model to determine the L-1," said an official. "The first jet built by HAL should roll out in early-2017," said another official.
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