Nod to induct more Rafales days ahead of Macron visit
Four days before the arrival of French President Emanuel Macron, the Union Government on Thursday cleared a proposal worth over `3.25 lakh crores for procuring 114 Rafale fighter jets from France. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved the acceptance of necessity (AoN) for the Rafale deal and cleared several other projects worth `3.60 lakh crores.
The DAC is the apex deal for giving the go-ahead for proposed procurements for the three services. The Cabinet Committee on Security(CCS)headed by the Prime Minister is the final authority to approve the deals. The Government-to-Government contract means that the French Government stands guarantee for fulfilling all contractual obligations.
Giving details of the DAC approvals, the officials said for the Indian Air Force (IAF), AoN was approved for the procurement of Multi Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) -Rafale— combat missiles and Air-Ship Based High Altitude Pseudo Satellite (AS-HAPS).
The procurement of MRFA will enhance the capability of undertaking air dominance roles across the spectrum of conflict and significantly boost the deterrence
capabilities of IAF with long-range offensive strikes. The majority of the MRFA to be procured will be manufactured in India. The combat missiles will enhance the stand-off ground attack capability with deep strike power and very high accuracy.
The AS-HAPS will be utilised towards carrying out persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, electronic Intelligence, telecommunication and remote sensing for military purposes.
As regards the proposed Government-to-Government deal for Rafales, sources said that while India will buy 18 jets off the shelf from manufacturer Dassault, the remaining planes will be manufactured in India. The IAF will induct 88 single-seat and 26 twin-seat variants, sources said. However, a formal contract to seal the deal is unlikely before the end of the year as the defence ministry will now have to carry out negotiations with Dassault Aviation to finalise the cost and finer details of the weapons package.
In April 2019, the IAF issued an RFI (Request for Information), or initial tender, to acquire 114 Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) at a cost of around $ 18 billion.The move to procure the jets has come at a time when the number of the Indian Air Force’s fighter squadrons have gone down to 31 from the officially sanctioned strength of 42.
