The Russians have the cheapest plane of the lot, and transitioning crews and maintenance personnel from MiG to MiG should be easier.

As to the price issues mentioned at the end, I would think that the F-16 would be the next cheapest, but I think that the Gripen would be cheaper than the F-18E/F.

I’ve always been a fan of the Gripen, so that may color this.

Additionally, the US might use export restrictions to attempt to kill a potential Gripen sale.

They tried this is South Africa, when they attempted to use export restrictions to get them to buy a US plane, but the response from South Africa was to forbid any US companies from bidding on Defense contracts, and the US relented.

Huge Indian Fighter Jet Tender Enters Final Stage

A scramble for a piece of the world’s largest fighter plane deal in over a decade moved into its final stage Friday with India examining the final bids from global weapons giants.

Indian defense ministry and industry sources said the choice appeared to have narrowed down to the Russian-built MiG-35 and MiG-29 aircraft, and U.S. offerings the Lockheed Martin F-16 and Boeing F-18.

A top defense procurement committee meeting had been expected to result in an announcement of the vendor of the 126 war planes, but an official statement late on Friday only said the tender has been “fine-tuned.”

The deal is potentially worth $9 billion to $10 billion.

Also in the race to replace a chunk of India’s aging fleet of 700 MiG-21s are Eurofighter’s Typhoon, Saab’s Gripen and Dassault’s Rafale and Mirage — although price considerations have left these contenders at a disadvantage, defense officials and industry sources said.

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