The deal for fighter jets, which are equipped with latest missiles and weapon systems, was preceded by tough negotiations over the price and will cost India about 7.87 billion euros.
Advertisement
India signed a formal agreement Friday to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France’s Dassault for 7.9 billion euros ($8.8 billion), one of its biggest defence deals in decades.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian signed the inter-government agreement for purchase of the fighter jets in fly-away condition that are capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
Finalisation of the contract brings to a close a long-running acquisition process to equip the Indian air force with the Rafale, which was selected as the victor of its medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) tender in 2012, defeating the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and Eurofighter Typhoon.
The French jets are expected to arrive by 2019 with all 36 delivered within six years.
The development comes after the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) discussed the deal and gave the green signal to go ahead with its signing to give a crucial boost to the Indian Air Force.
They added that Rafale would be able to do five missions per day as compared to three for other aircraft due to their high turnaround time.
The delivery of this aircraft will start in 36 months and will be completed in 66 months from the date of signing the contract, officials said.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, India accounted for 14 percent of the total global arms imports between 2011 and 2015 – three times greater than that of its rivals China and Pakistan.
The weapons package includes, amongst others, advanced Beyond Visual Range (BVR) METEOR missiles which is much better than the previous offer. With Meteor, the balance of power in the air space has again tilted in the favour of India.
The “vanilla price” or the price of only the 36 aircraft is 3.42 billion euros.
Advertisement
To New Delhi’s advantage, the aircraft would come with several India-specific enhancements, including an Israeli helmet-mounted display. 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. It represents a decisive step forward in achieving Dassault Aviation’s goal of establishing itself in India with a view to developing wide-ranging cooperation under the “Make in India” policy promoted by Mr Narendra Modi.
