French firm Dassault has won a multi-billion dollar contract to provide 126 fighter jets to the Indian military, a government source in New Delhi told AFP on Tuesday. Dassault will sell its Rafale multi-role jet to India after beating the Eurofighter consortium to secure the long-awaited contract, which is estimated to be worth $12 billion. “You can take it as confirmed that Dassault has got the deal. Since there were only two companies and it has come out as the lowest bidder,” the government source told AFP. The French government also confirmed Dassault’s victory. “We have won the contract,” French Minister of State for Foreign Trade Pierre Lellouche told France’s BFM radio, while adding that “a certain number of things remain to be finalised.” Dassault Aviation shares soared more than 20 percent on the Paris Stock Exchange after the news broke. The huge contract to supply war planes to fast-developing India has been fiercely fought over for four years. India in April pulled a surprise by cutting out US bidders Boeing and Lockheed Martin — much to Washington’s disappointment — as well as dropping Sweden’s Saab AB and the Russian makers of the MiG 35 from the race. Dassault’s rival, Eurofighter, which had pitted its Typhoon aircraft against the Rafale, is a consortium of Britain’s BAE Systems, Italy’s Finmeccanica and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).
France’s Dassault wins 126 jet Indian contract
