INS Vikrant-Future Indian aircraft carriers

Are you trying to suggest French weapons are actually cheap, but really just misunderstood?

The fact of the matter if you are going to say it was partly Russias fault for not properly examining the state of the ship, then wouldn't it also be fair to accuse France of underhanded play... the Indians didn't want the Rafale... they wanted local production of M2000s and were refused...

The Russians seem to be able to make Su-30s really cheaply, yet Su-30MKIs seem rather expensive... you already mentioned HALs ability go gouge their own government... are Russian shipyards not allowed to do the same to a good client?

It was because when they signed the agreements with Russia, they never signed an actual after sale support. It was "buy the plane, that is it". It was after years they decided to buy an after sale support due to all the issues they experienced, especially with spare parts (which btw was a "sale by order". Yes, Russian jets would be more expensive. But from what I have heard, it is still roughly $50M per aircraft after all the support compared to what, 3x that for Rafale.

There are plenty of Indian newspaper and news sources who are happy to bash Russia and Russian products and thinks the US and France can do no wrong.

I remember having a discussion with an Indian member who was complaining at the cost of the Su-30MKI, but when he finally came up with figures it was the French and Israeli components that were the expensive fraction of the costs.

Of course if you want expensive leather seats then expect it to be expensive...

Conversely the Indian media continuously complained about the cost increases of the Gorshkov, yet I don't remember any complaints about the price of the Rafales, except reporting that the Indian military was not going to buy 126 aircraft at that price and so all that time and effort was wasted.

Throughout the 1990s a lot of countries saved a lot of money buying products from former users, only to find out that they the spares and support was absent. When those countries went to the manufacturer of the products for spares and support they found it was rather more expensive than they expected... the best time to negotiated a spares and support contract is when you are buying the product... but don't expect the producer to give you a good rate if you bought the product from another customer.... that is no gouging.... that is just business.

If I am selling cars I can offer you a service deal because of margins, so I can still make good money. If you bought the car from someone else I need to make my money from the spares and support contract so the price goes up... claiming I am overcharging or taking advantage is amusing.

Of course if I use the extra money I make to go on holiday to get a tan is one thing, if I use the money to upgrade my tools and get extra training so I can do more of my own servicing and not have to outsource it really reflects on me as a professional...