Price Remains Key Sticking Point as India, Qatar Rekindle 2005 Mirage Jet Talks

India and Qatar have re-entered discussions regarding the potential sale of 12 Mirage-2000-5 fighter jets to the Indian Air Force (IAF). This marks a revival of negotiations that first took place nearly two decades ago, in 2005. At that time, the deal fell through due to disagreements over the price, with Qatar reportedly sought $62 million per jet, while India offered only $58 million.

In the current round of talks, Qatar has presented a slightly lower price of $59.82 million per jet, but India is still pushing for further discounts, citing the fact that the aircraft now have only approximately 30% of their operational life remaining. If the deal goes through, these jets would augment the IAF's existing fleet of 48 Mirage-2000-5 Standard aircraft, bringing the total to 60 units.

The acquisition of these used Mirage jets would help alleviate the fighter jet shortage currently faced by the IAF, which has been caused by the phasing out of older MiG planes. Furthermore, the Qatari offer reportedly includes missiles and spare engines, adding to the deal's appeal.

While the talks are ongoing, a final decision is yet to be made. India is reportedly seeking a further reduction in the price per jet before committing to the purchase. The IAF intends to keep the Mirage-2000-5 fleet operational until 2035, when it will be replaced by the indigenously developed Tejas MkII jets.

This potential deal reflects India's ongoing efforts to modernize its air force and address its fighter jet shortage. The outcome of the negotiations will be closely watched by defense analysts and observers, as it could have significant implications for India's air power capabilities.

 

[Apocalypse gupta]

Wow what a logic man so you are saying pilots can't be trained and their are already readymade pilots available for the mirage??
we operate SU-30MKI around 260 still we can't train these pilots while mirage is around 50 we have ready made pilots available for them I don't know that Qatar is offering ready made pilots too with the jets!!
simple logic is if we wants jets then why can't we order jet newly that will help in building the ecosystem and surely help our forces and we have already old and absolute airforce!! Why making it more worse!! Just poor planning!!

I already told you about the squadron system that is followed. Aircrafts have different capabilites. You cant just replace aircraft A with Aircraft B. Both have to be in same class, or you need to build a new squadron. A squadron that uses MIG-21 cant go to using Su30, just like that. So you can cant replace mig21 by Su30. But tejas has similar function to mig21, it was designed to replace it. Same goes for Mirage 2000. The squadron that uses mirage 2000, cant suddenly switch to Su30. Both aircrafts serve different functions in the air force.
You can just say, oh Su30MKI is the most advanced aircraft in our arsenal, so we should just bul order them and buy 1000, to replace all of our older aircraft.
That is not how it works. There are a lot of other considerations.

 

[Anant]

even mig 27 can do those roles, does it mean IAF should look for mig 27

And where exactly would you find MiG-27s now? Most of what remains of India's MiG-27s are now museum pieces of scrap metal. No other nation still operates MiG-27s, and even Kazakhstan (the last operator) retired their MiG-27s last year after they hadn't flown for almost a decade.

 

[Anant]

Mig 35 is an upgrade for the mig25, which was a beast of a plane. Super fast, and good payload capacity.

Mig 35 is also similar, very fast, good payload capacity. Russians are using them to launch the kinzhal aerobalistic missile. But they also require lot of fuel and it has 0 stealth. Any decent air superiority fighter will see it coming from hundreds of km away.

In short, we dont have a need for an aircraft like mig35

You mean the MiG-31, not the MiG-35. The MiG-35 is only a new MiG-29 with the number plates filed off.

 

[Anurag]

I already told you about the squadron system that is followed. Aircrafts have different capabilites. You cant just replace aircraft A with Aircraft B. Both have to be in same class, or you need to build a new squadron. A squadron that uses MIG-21 cant go to using Su30, just like that. So you can cant replace mig21 by Su30. But tejas has similar function to mig21, it was designed to replace it. Same goes for Mirage 2000. The squadron that uses mirage 2000, cant suddenly switch to Su30. Both aircrafts serve different functions in the air force.
You can just say, oh Su30MKI is the most advanced aircraft in our arsenal, so we should just bul order them and buy 1000, to replace all of our older aircraft.
That is not how it works. There are a lot of other considerations.

So you are saying we shouldn't induct rafale because we don't really use Omni role fighter jet?? Or we can't induct fifth generation aircraft because we don't operate them.
If you are saying about the aircraft role surely have different roles and mission to fulfill but mirage is aircraft of previous decade modern aircraft struggling to fullfill their mission nowadays so how mirage is going to do that while you can purchase other aircraft I have said about su-30mki due to the reason that it can be of the 70m usd price tag

 

[Apocalypse gupta]

So you are saying we shouldn't induct rafale because we don't really use Omni role fighter jet?? Or we can't induct fifth generation aircraft because we don't operate them.
If you are saying about the aircraft role surely have different roles and mission to fulfill but mirage is aircraft of previous decade modern aircraft struggling to fullfill their mission nowadays so how mirage is going to do that while you can purchase other aircraft I have said about su-30mki due to the reason that it can be of the 70m usd price tag

You are putting words in my mouth. I am just saying that procurement of fighter jets is very complex and there are lots of factors that go into making decisions. I believe that there are genuine reasons why IAF wants to procure these 2nd hand mirages, and they will likely succeed in buying them after getting a bigger discount from qatar.

 

[Apocalypse gupta]

You mean the MiG-31, not the MiG-35. The MiG-35 is only a new MiG-29 with the number plates filed off.

Yeah, i miswrote. Mig 35 is upgrade of mig29. These russians and there numbers confuse me sometimes