A cautious mix of optimism and pragmatism emerged in a quickfire round SP’s directed at the contestants in the race for the MMRCA deal. Of the six frontrunners, three were forthcoming with their views.

Boeing IDS response—

What would you say are your chances of clinching India’s MMRCA deal?

We believe Boeing’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet provides state-of-the-art 21st Century warfighting capability and is an extremely good value proposition to the Indian Air Force because of its overall life cycle cost. Unlike some of our competitors, whose offerings are being phased out elsewhere as customers move on to more modern capability, the Super Hornet will be around for decades to come with continued investment to ensure robust supportability and capability.

What, according to you, are the distinct advantages inherent in your proposal vis-à-vis the other contenders?

We believe the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet will give India the most advanced see-all, do-all combat fighter in production today, capable of defending the nation from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean with unmatched lethality, pilot safety, and the promise of 30+ years of continual US Navy-funded upgrades. This is a fighter that has been proven in combat. The F/A- 18 has a hot production line, which means India can start replenishing its depleted squadron strength quickly. The Super Hornet boasts the latest generation of US manufacturing and military technology. For example, Raytheon’s APG-79 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar is one of the Super Hornet’s critical key discriminators. AESA expands the Super Hornet’s lethality to beyond the range of weapons or platforms that might be a threat against it. The AESA, and other advanced technologies that are operational on the Super Hornet today do not exist on some of our competitor’s offerings, and are simply long-term and costly developmental promises. The F/A-18I also boasts an advanced targeting pod—the Litening AT pod—built by Northrop Grumman, for exceptional air-to-ground performance, as well as a Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) for enhanced aircrew situational awareness and combat lethality. A very large part of the Super Hornet’s appeal is affordability, both unit flyaway and life cycle. In fact, the Super Hornet is a fighter that won’t see a scheduled visit to a maintenance depot until it has clocked a minimum of 6,000 hours of flying time and likely much longer.

If you bag the contract, what will be the timeframe for delivery of the first aircraft?

The first 18 aircraft will be delivered to the Indian Air Force in fly-away condition from our plant in St. Louis, with the first plane delivered within 36 months after contract signing. The remaining 108 aircraft will be assembled in India, and the first of these would fly 54 months after contract signing. All 126 aircraft would be delivered to the Indian Air Force by 2020, and would benefit from continual US Navy-funded technology insertions over that time period, as well as Indian Air Force upgrades if desired.