New Delhi - India will soon begin long-awaited trials of aircraft competing for the world's most lucrative fighter jet contract, the air force said on Wednesday.
The announcement ended months of uncertainty over India's plans to open the race for six global aeronautical giants to grab the $12 billion, 126-jet deal.
Indian air force chief Fali Homi Major told reporters in New Delhi summer trials of the six contenders, in India and abroad, could begin by April or May.
"It is going to be a long process," he said. "Technical evaluation of six top-of-the-line fighter aircraft is a very complex job," he added.
US-based Lockheed Martin, with the F-16, and Boeing's F-18 "Superhornet" have emerged as the front-runners, industry sources said.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company has offered its Typhoon Eurofighter and French Dassault, which constructs the Mirage, has put forward its Rafale.
Russian manufacturers of the MiG-35 and MiG-29, as well as Sweden's Saab, which is hawking its Gripen fighter, are also in the running for the biggest fighter jet contract in 16 years.
The contract includes the outright purchase of 18 fighter jets by 2012 with another 108 to be built in India.
India also has an option to buy 64 more such jets.
Major also announced India would "very soon" clinch a $1.92 billion deal to upgrade its fleet of French-built Mirage fighters, with final negotiations underway in Paris.
India, the biggest buyer of military hardware among emerging nations, opened talks in 2008 with France's Thales and Dassault Aviation for the project.
The Indian Air Force has 51 Mirage-2000 war planes made by Dassault with electronics from Thales that need a major upgrade.
The French consortium has been facing stiff competition for the upgrade contract from Israel, which in 2007 overtook France as the second largest defence equipment supplier to India after Russia.
The air force chief also unveiled plans for the modernisation of 50 MiG-29 jets at a cost of more than a $1 billion and said five had been already sent to their Russian manufacturers.
The Indian air force, the world's fourth largest, is also spending $1.6 billion to buy 40 Russian Sukhoi fighter planes by 2010 to further bolster firepower, defence ministry officials said separately.
India plans to spend up to $30 billion by 2012 to upgrade its million-strong military. - AFP