The fourth of the eight phases that define India’s Defence Procurement Procedure was scheduled for completion by March-April 2010, but in all likelihood will stretch till at least the latter part of the year

What’s next? And, most importantly, when? Next is the ‘Field Trials’. As for when, while a guesstimate would be uncalled for—highlyplaced sources point to August-end—perhaps ‘round the corner’ would suffice, given the infusion of hope in the wake of the UPA’s return to power. Admittedly, decks have been cleared for India’s most ambitious defence programme: acquisition of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the Indian Air Force (IAF) to enter the next phase of the country’s laborious Defence Procurement Procedure.

Just prior to the elections, the IAF had completed the Herculean and highly complicated task of technical evaluation of the responses to India’s request for proposal (RFP) from the six competing global vendors, and submitted the report to the Defence Ministry. Subsequently, while the groundwork had commenced, it was evident that the next phase of the procurement procedure would be undertaken only after the general elections and the formation of the new government. ‘Field Trials’ is the just the fourth of the eight phases of procurement stage.

From its inception in 2001, the MMRCA programme has taken over eight grinding years to go past the ‘Technical Evaluation’ phase. It is only hoped that the remaining phases will be conducted with greater alacrity than shown hitherto for the IAF to get the aircraft within reasonable time frame.

While the IAF is reportedly gearing up to commence the arduous task of ‘Flight Trials’, the contending companies have launched rigorous campaigns/lobbying for their respective jet fighters with special offers. To refresh memories, six aircraft are in the fray for India’s ‘Mother of all defence deals’ order—the Saab Gripen, Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale, Mikoyan MiG-35, Lockheed Martin F-16IN and Boeing F/A-18IN (a version of the Super Hornet).

To flight evaluate all competing aircraft, the IAF has chalked up a comprehensive programme involving tests at three different locations in India: technical and humid conditions tests in Bangalore; hot-weather desert trials in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan; even as, Leh in Ladakh has been earmarked for the conduct of high-altitude trials where the ground level exceeds 10,000ft amsl. Taking into account the number of bidders, the number of locations and all-encompassing testing scenarios of hot and humid, hot and dry, and hot and high, the task of flight-testing all the aircraft will undoubtedly be time consuming.

That’s not all. According to the latest reports, while the single-seat versions of the competing aircraft will be tested in India, the twin-seat versions as also selected weapons’ trials will be conducted in the manufacturers’ respective country locations. Rumour is the bidding aircraft will be summoned one by one, or a maximum of two at a time, for the tests in India. Similarly, it is quite possible that the two sets of designated flight evaluation teams will visit the respective manufacturers’ locations abroad, turn by turn, to complete the remaining trials.