By Ajit Dubey
New Delhi [india], August 6 : In a significant development in the 114 Rafale jet deal, France has submitted its detailed technical and commercial proposal to India for the deal, which will include large-scale local manufacturing and production of the multi-role combat aircraft.
The Rafale aircraft are likely to become one of the mainstays of the Indian Air Force in future and were chosen in 2012 by the Defence Ministry after a long global competition.
The French officials have submitted their response to the Indian Letter of Request for buying 114 Rafale multirole fighter jets and it is being studied by the Acquisition Wing of the Defence Ministry and the Indian Air Force, Defence sources told ANI.
The Indian side would be closely analysing the French response to Indian demand for integrating Indian weapons like the variants of the Astra air-to-air missiles and indigenous content in the aircraft under the deal, they said.
The French side has to manufacture 94 out of the 114 aircraft in india with a local industry partner, and this would be done by all the partners of the French Dassault Aviation, including missile manufacturer MBDA, engine maker Safran and Thales.
A significant amount of indigenisation is expected in the deal, which is likely to provide opportunities worth around Rs 1.6 lakh crore to Indian industry players including Tata, Larsen and Toubro and others.
India had issued the Letter of Request (LoR) to France for the mega government-to-government deal for 114 Rafale fighter jets for the Indian Air Force in May this year.
The aircraft are critical for meeting the critical requirements of the Indian Air Force as its squadron strength is dwindling due to the phasing out of the vintage aircraft, including the variants of the Russian-origin MiG fighter jets and major delays in the induction of indigenous aircraft like the LCA Mark1A and LCA Mark 2.
While the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy have placed orders for 62 Rafale planes already, the 114 Rafale order will take the numbers to 176. The Indian Navy has also already expressed its intent to induct 31 more of these planes to tackle maritime threats, and that may take the number of Rafales in the country to over 200.
Defence Ministry had carried out a major study under Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh to enhance the capability of the Indian Air Force soon after he took over in 2024 and the Defence Ministry has been working towards that in a focused manner.
The Defence Acquisition Council had cleared the Indian Air Force proposal to acquire the 114 Rafale jets around five months ago.