The French fighter Rafale is now out of the race of a $10-billion contract for 126 combat aircraft for the Indian Air Force. The twin-engine multi-role fighter Rafale was one of the six contenders in the race. The Ministry of Defence officially rejected Rafale on the ground of its failure to meet qualitative requirements of the contract, an official said. Rafale was always an underdog in the competition for what is considered the largest international defence contract so far.

 

The IAF has been maintaining that all six contenders for the Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contract have met technical requirements. But a senior official of the Ministry of Defence on Thursday (16th April) said that, Dassault Aviation's Rafale was rejected at the technical evaluation stage for failing to meet minimum performance requirements detailed in the tender document.

 

The official also added that, flight trials for the remaining five fighters are expected to commence within three months. Other five contenders in the race, apart from Rafale, are American F-18 and F-16, Eurofighter Typhoon, Russian MiG-35 and Swedish Gripen NG. Earlier, the French fighter Rafale was aggressively pushed by the French government with hectic effort from former President Jacques Chirac and his successor Nicolas Sarkozy.