On Monday, Indian media cited sources in the Defense Ministry saying that a $20 billion Indian-French deal on the acquisition of 126 Rafale multirole fighter aircraft was "effectively dead" as the fighters turned out to be more costly than initially estimated.
"We have every chance to compete. We are hoping for another bid or tender to be announced," MIG Head Sergei Korotkov said at Aero India-2015 exposition, held in Bengaluru.
In January, a source in the Indian Defense Ministry told Sputnik that New Delhi had not yet made a decision about purchasing the Rafales from the Dassault company, which won a bid in 2012. The source said that India considered Russian Su-30s a sensible alternative if the deal with France failed.
On Wednesday, Indian Defense Minister said the ministry would look at the report on the Rafale deal in early March at the latest and would make a final decision on purchasing the jets.
Russia and India have been close partners in military and technical cooperation. In 2014, the total cost of weapons and military hardware delivered by Russia to India reached $4.7 billion, the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation estimated.
