Or is this just a negotiating tactic?
The frogs need welfare, not fighters. I would guess 20% of the cost of the jet is completely wasted. I may be too generous.
No, this almost certainly stems from the inherent inability of Indians to think ahead (as called out to me by my Indian brother-in-law and several other acquaintances). Dassault didn’t help when they submitted a bid that likely only consisted of the initial delivery cost of the fighters, rather than a full bid including estimated maintenance etc, but it fell to MoD to make sure of what they were getting, and MoD dropped the ball.
Ask any real estate agent about "cultural tactics." The deal is merely in the "Exasperation Phase."
They should be buying F16 then
Sounds like the new Indian government would prefer to spend it’s defense dollars domestically with Hindustan Aeronautics, rather than overseas.
And we have the Defence Minister and Dassault saying today that ‘things are going ahead/should be done by March’!
There’s lot of shadow boxing and dirty tricks going on....I wouldn’t be surprised if its the Russian lobby involved. Nothing better than embarrassing the French after the Mistral fiasco.