Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW
THE INDIAN defence ministry and Mikoyan are struggling to conclude a contract covering the upgrade of Indian air force Mikoyan MiG-21s, with India once again considering alternative prime contractors.
The delay is the result of a considerable rise in Mikoyan's initial bid price. Russian arms-export organisation Rosvooruzheniye initially quoted a figure of $1.5 million per aircraft in 1992.
This has now escalated partly because of Indian-led changes to the upgrade, and also because of inflation and manpower cost increases in Russia.
According to Russian sources, the air force has re-approached Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) asking it to submit an alternative bid.
Sources close to the Israeli Company confirm that it is once again in contention to become prime contractor on the air force MiG-21 upgrade, although they admit that any contract signature is some way off.
The air force, is looking to upgrade 125 of its MiG-21Bis fleet, with an improved radar, upgraded cockpit and mission avionics, and improved air-to-air and air-to-surface weapons.
The Mikoyan package is built around the MiG-21-93 with the Phazotron Kopyo lightweight multi-mode radar, and can carry weapons such as the Vympel R-27 (AA-10 Alamo) and R-77 (AA-12 Adder) medium-range air-to-air missiles and the Raduga Kh-31 (AS-17 Krypton) air-to-surface missile.
Russian officials are optimistic that the difficulties over the price can be resolved. They argue that the package on offer from Mikoyan offers an increased combat capability considerably beyond any of the packages offered by competitors.
Mikoyan has also thrown its MiG-AT advanced jet trainer into the equation, offering the aircraft to meet the air force's jet-trainer requirement.
Mikoyan is competing against British Aerospace, offering the Hawk, while Dassault is offering the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet for the Indian trainer requirement. India is expected to announce a winner of this long-running competition by the end of this year.
Source: Flight International
