India may ink a Government to Government deal for at least 26 fighter jets for its indigenously designed and manufactured aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. It may be inducted into service on August 15 this year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The need for proposed Government to Government contract arose as the indigenously designed and manufactured fighter jets for aircraft carriers may take some years thereby affecting the operational readiness of the Navy, sources said here on Monday.
A government to government deal ensures that the weapon system seller’s country stands guarantee for all the terms and conditions of the contract. The latest example is 36 Rafale fighter jets procured for the IAF wherein the French government is the guarantor.
French built Rafales have demonstrated their capabilities to the Indian Navy here in January. The US manufactured F-18 Super Hornets have arrived here for extensive trials. These jets built by Boeing will demonstrated their capabilities at the Indian Navy’s Shore-Based Testing Facility (SBTF) at Goa in the next few days.
These trials are part of demonstrations by the aircraft manufacturers to showcase the compatibility of their aircraft to fly from Indian Navy’s aircraft carriers INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant which use a ski-jump to launch aircraft, sources said. Both the Rafale-M and F/A-18 are originally designed to operate from carriers with a catapult launch mechanism. The carrier would also require minor modifications to operate the aircraft.
Boeing has already demonstrated the ability of F/A-18 to take off from a similar shore-based facility at Naval Air Station Patuxent river in Maryland, U.S. in December 2020.
The Navy had issued a global tender or Request for Information (RFI) in 2017 for 57 twin-engine carrier based fighter jets. However, the number of jets was cut down to 26 later including some twin-seater jets.