India signed a deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France for close to 7.8 billion euros ($8.7 billion) on Friday.
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France’s Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian inked the agreement with his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar in New Delhi, ending nearly 18 months of wrangling over financial terms between New Delhi and Dassault Aviation, the jet’s manufacturer.
The Central Government had initially planned to purchase 126 Rafale fighter planes but later opted for just 36 jets in fly-away condition from France with PM Modi announcing the revised deal in Paris past year.
The first of the Rafales, made by Dassault Aviation, will be delivered in three years and the last in 5½ years, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
India managed to get the aircraft customised with 14 Indian Air Force (IAF) specifications including Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missile Meteor that Rafale jets will come fitted with. During the Kargil war, India used a BVR of 50 km while Pakistan had none. The armaments cost about 710 million while Indian specific changes, including integration of Israeli helmet-mounted displays, will cost approximately 1,700 million.
Ministry sources reasoned that the total cost of the Rafale package, complete with the aircraft, the infrastructure for them, the weapons, the training and customised systems was so good that it had already resulted in savings of 328 million euros because India drove a hard bargain. France has to ensure that at least 75 percent of the aircraft, or 27 planes, are operationally available at any given time by providing proper maintenance, spare parts and ammunition.
India had scrapped an earlier contract for 126 combat jets as part of its Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition, in which Dassault Rafale was selected against the likes of Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Eurofighter Typhoon, Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon, Mikoyan MiG-35, and Saab JAS 39 Gripen. Air force representatives warned India’s parliament past year that the number of squadrons could fall to 25 by 2022, putting India on a par with its nuclear-armed neighbour Pakistan. This forced both the countries to just sign a MoU and French President Francois Hollande’s announcing their intention to sign an IGA.
The sources were comparing this notional saving to the price that would have been negotiated if the government had persisted with the original selection of the Rafale. In other words, if inflation Indices goes down, India will have to pay less.
Modi announced on a visit to Paris past year that his government had agreed in principle to buy the jets as India looks to modernise its Soviet-era military.
The aircraft will be maintained and supported by the French for the first five years of operations.
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Another clause makes it clear that in case the “Indian infrastructure is not ready for storing” the weapons, there will be guarantee for free storage facilities for six months in France itself.
