Monday, November 21 2005 14:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Indian Government is expected to issue Request for Proposals (RFPs) to prospective parties on purchasing 125 fighter aircraft in a USD five billion contract.

"F-16s are very much in contention", Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi said today (Nov 21, 2005).

Jets being reportedly considered for purchases are the Lockheed Martin's F-16 from the US, France's Mirage 2000, the MiG-29 from Russia and the Swedish Gripen.

"I think within a month's time, RFPs will go", the Air Chief Marshal told reporters here on the sidelines of a function at Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment.

Asked about the possibility of F-16s bagging the deal, he said: "That possibility exists. Ofcourse, we have asked them for information; so, it's very much in contention".

Asked if provision would be made in this year's Union budget for buying the aircraft, the Chief of Air Staff said, "It will take a long time to sign the contract. We are not buying potatoes and vegetables. Are we? It's a USD five billion deal. I won't happen in a day".

He termed the recent, second Indo-US air exercise at the IAF's Kalaikunda airbase in West Bengal as a 'great learning process'. "From military point of view, it's a great learning process; they (Americans) learnt from us and we learnt from them".

"We get to exercise with different kind of equipment, we have exercised F-16s and AWACs; that's the big advantage to India", said the Air Chief Marshal, who described F-16s as 'decent aircraft'.

He denied that he called Pakistan the enemy number one of India. Pakistan is a security challenge and it's not a secret, he contended.