- Rafale jets come equipped with state-of-the-art missiles like ‘Meteor’ and ‘Scalp’
India signed a deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France on Friday for nearly 7.8 billion Euros ($8.7 billion) on Friday, the country’s first major acquisition of fighter planes for two decades.
France’s Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian inked the agreement with his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar in New Delhi, ending almost 18 months of wrangling over financial terms between New Delhi and Dassault Aviation, the jet’s manufacturer.
Also present during the signing of the deal were the chief executive officers (CEOs) of Dassault Aviation, the makers of Rafale.
India’s Defence Ministry said it would confirm the exact price later on Friday, but officials said it would be close to 7.8 billion Euros.
According to Indian media, these combat aircraft, delivery of which will start in 36 months and will be completed in 66 months from the date the contract is inked, come equipped with state-of-the-art missiles like ‘Meteor’ and ‘Scalp’ that will give the Indian Air Force (IAF) a capability that had been sorely missing in its arsenal.
The features that make the Rafale a strategic weapon in the hands of IAF is its Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Meteor air-to-air missile with a range in excess of 150 km.
Its integration on the Rafale jets will mean IAF can hit targets inside both Pakistan and across the northern and eastern borders while staying within India’s territorial boundary.
Associate supplies for the 36 fighter jets would cost about 1,800 million Euros while performance-based logistics would cost about 353 million Euros, Indian media reported.
INDIA NEEDS MORE THAN RAFALE TO MATCH CHINA:
India may have just spent billions of dollars on hi-tech French fighter jets, but experts say it needs to do a lot more if it is going to face up to an increasingly assertive China.
The world’s top defence importer has signed several big-ticket deals as part of a $100-billion upgrade since Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in 2014. But it has been slow to replace its dwindling fleet of Russian MiG-21s — dubbed “Flying Coffins” because of their poor safety record.
An agreement to buy 36 cutting edge Rafale jets from France’s Dassault aims to fix that. “It will give the air force an arrowhead. Our air force has old aircraft, 1970s and 1980s generation aircraft and for the first time in about 25-30 years we will have a quantum jump in technology,” said defence analyst Gulshan Luthra. “Rafale is loaded with (the) best of the technologies and we need it.”
The air force says it needs at least 42 squadrons to protect its northern and western borders with Pakistan and China. It currently has around 32, each comprising 18 aircraft. Air force representatives warned India’s parliament last year that the number of squadrons could fall to 25 by 2022, putting India on a par with its nuclear-armed neighbour Pakistan.