Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari after assuming office have started taking major decisions like procurement of 114 fighter aircraft under multi-role fighter aircraft (MRFA) tender after his office issued an internal order to complete assessment of the request for information (RFI) so that request for proposal (RFP) for the same can be issued by mid or late 2022.
IAF had issued RFI to procure 114 jets at an expenditure of approximately USD 18 billion in April 2019 and RFI was still at the stage of evaluation after receiving offers from Lockheed’s F-21, Boeing’s F/A-18, Dassault’s Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon, Russian aircraft MiG 35, and Saab’s Gripen.
MRFA project will be executed under the provision of the DAP 2020, the selected OEM will have to abide by the requirements of Transfer of technology and make in India that would help in India’s indigenous fighter aircraft development plan.
