The next day, FN officially announced its withdrawal from the Indian Army's procurement tender.

Only then did Wang Dong receive the exact news, and the problem was not the details of the contract, but that the Indian Ministry of Defense had pushed the price too low.

In the last negotiations, India's Ministry of Defense still insisted on an ultra-low floor of $2.5 billion.

In addition, the Indian Ministry of Defense refused to back down on the specific content of the contract, especially the part related to after-sales service, and still insisted on the ultra-high standards originally proposed.

Can this deal still be done?

In Gao Jun's words, not to mention FN company, even D&F company will definitely lose money.

It seems that the unit price of $5,000 is not low, after all, the market price of the basic SCAR-H is also this price, but if you count the after-sales service and technical authorization, it is not high, not to mention that the Indian Ministry of Defense insists on making the domestic production rate 100%.

If FN had signed the contract, it would have lost at least $1 billion.

In addition, FN's signboard will definitely be smashed on this deal.

The key point is that the Indian Ministry of Defense not only requires the second batch of 350,000 SCAR-IA to be produced domestically, but also proposes to jointly promote this rifle with FN.

To this end, the Indian Ministry of Defense mentioned that it is confident that neighboring countries will procure SCAR-IA.

Of course, it's just confidence, not a guarantee.

The question is, how many neighboring countries will give face to India, and how much demand will these neighboring countries have?

The demand of Huaxia and Pakistan is large enough, but it will definitely not give India face, not to mention that Huaxia adopts its own caliber standards.

Not only does Nepal have almost no army, but it also does not have much money to procure new rifles.

The Bangladesh Army is not small, but it will consider Chinese products first, and the Bangladesh Army's active standard rifles come from China.

Myanmar has continued civil strife and has little purchasing power.

Sri Lanka is similar to Myanmar, limited by national strength, the purchase of new rifles is not strong, and will consider Chinese products first.

Obviously, the likelihood of purchasing SCAR-IA by the countries surrounding India is almost zero.

Going international?

FN has long promoted SCAR to the international market, and has been well received by many private users, does India need to intervene?

Besides, FN has always been known for its excellent products, while the quality of Indian products is another extreme.

Even if FN's purpose is only to get the purchase contract in India, and it doesn't plan to make money from this contract, after all, FN's offer is $3.5 billion, which is 1 billion less than D&F's, and it will never trade at a loss, let alone smash the signboard of a century-old store.

In fact, India's offer of $2.5 billion also proves that the Indian authorities want to screw up the deal.

Let's not forget, the psychological floor price of the Indian authorities is $4 billion, and FN's offer is below this, what reason is there to continue to keep the price down?

As long as the Indian authorities want to make the deal, they should accept FN's offer.

As for why the Indian authorities screwed up the deal, it must have something to do with the scandal that broke out before.

The procurement bidding broke up unhappily, and the unlucky one was only Rajani, and the investigation against ** will also be declared over after the bidding is over.

If the tender goes ahead, more officials will surely be implicated.

In addition, India has nothing to lose.

In a few years, when the limelight has passed, another tender will still be able to get companies like FN to rush in, and maybe even buy a better rifle.

As long as you have money in your hand, are you afraid that you won't be able to buy it?

In fact, funding is also a big issue.

On the same day that FN announced its withdrawal, senior officials from the Indian Ministry of Defense went to London to formally contact BAE Systems.

Not for the purchase of firearms from the D&F company, but for the purchase of M777 towed howitzers.

Although it was first equipped with the U.S. ** team, and it was designed and developed at the request of the U.S. military, the M777 is genuinely made in the United Kingdom.

The M777 is produced by BAE Systems, and it is the fist product of BAE Systems in the field of artillery.

Although no inside information has been obtained, there is enough reason to believe that the procurement of a towed howitzer to replace the FH-77 has been a top priority for the Indian military in recent years.

Because there are no more and better options, it is difficult for the Indian military to get an ideal price.

As is the case with Western arms companies, BAE Systems will certainly offer sky-high prices and then give huge kickbacks to Indian officials in charge of procurement.

Unless the Indian authorities intend to wait a few years before making purchases, they will have to accept the price offered by BAE Systems.

At that time, it was precisely because a large number of fighters were about to reach the limit of their life and urgently needed to be replaced that India purchased 36 Rafale from France for more than $8 billion.

Later, when testifying before Congress, Indian Defense Ministry officials gave an explanation that India wanted a spot.

To put it simply, Dassault sold the Rafale, which was originally produced for the French Air Force, to India, and the price was naturally more expensive than normal.

This time, it's not as simple as being more expensive.

The point is that back a few years ago, after the delivery of the last batch of M777s to the US military, BAE Systems shut down the production line.

Later, in order to obtain the purchase contract in India, BAE Systems also asked for its own pocket to maintain the production line.

Unfortunately, halfway through the bidding process, India terminated the negotiations, and the tens of millions of pounds invested by BAE Systems were all in vain.

Obviously, it will certainly not be a low price for BAE Systems to reopen the production line.

According to estimates by the British news media, India will need about $4 billion to buy 300 M777s from BAE Systems.

In addition, the first M777s will not be delivered until three years from now.

Because of the unhappy past, BAE Systems will definitely have to pay for the restart of the production line in India, and it will only start after getting the money.

A conservative estimate would have cost no less than $500 million to restart the production line.

Of course, the exact amount depends on whether BAE Systems is willing to make this deal.

The production line of the M777 has always been there and has not been dismantled, and BAE Systems has been marketing this towed howitzer to other countries, and has also developed some improved models, and in addition, many production equipment is shared with other guns, so there is no need to dismantle the production line.

After a week of grueling negotiations, the Indian authorities preemptively announced that they had reached an agreement of intent with BAE Systems to purchase the M777.

A few days later, BAE Systems also announced the news, but there was a slight discrepancy, that is, India only indicated that it was willing to purchase the M777, and negotiations were ongoing.

It took another half a month for BAE Systems to officially announce that it had signed a contract of intent with India.

According to the contract, India will pay $300 million in start-up capital by the end of the year, and BAE Systems will resume production of the M777 within half a year after receiving the money, and India will sign a formal purchase contract to place orders with BAE Systems before then.

As long as $300 million, BAE Systems is eager to make the deal.

This also means that in the next few years, the Indian Army will not have the funds to purchase new rifles to replace INSAS.