When French President Jacques Chirac arrives in New Delhi on February 19, he will make it a point to tell Indian authorities about the formal withdrawal of the Mirage-2000-5 fighter from the bid for 126 combat aircraft that the IAF is looking at. In its place, he will formally offer the Rafale multirole fighter.

In what has taken the IAF completely by surprise, considering it has unofficially been gunning for the Mirage, the French government has conveyed its intention to shortly pull the Mirage family of fighters off all production lines at contractor Dassault's facilities to make way for the full-rate production of the new-generation Rafale.

Considering it would take at least three-four years for a contract to actually be signed with India, Paris thinks it would be too expensive to keep the Mirage factories humming.

The Rafale, it feels, would be a more a suitable contender: it is much more capable, though considerably costlier.

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