Indian Rafale Deal Final By September. Any Breaths Held?

Well, not mine. But there’s definitely movement. Definitely. Two prominent newspaper reports today, likely from the same source, indicate India’s painfully protracted M-MRCA jet negotiations for 126 Dassault Rafales have just entered a phase of finality. This report today by friend Rajat Pandit over at the Times of India says final negotiations could be “wrapped up” in as little as three months, with three sub-committees tasked with ironing out stubborn folds, finally getting the job done. This other report by friend and network colleague Gautam Dutt concurs on the three month guess and that the sub-committees on technical maintenance, offsets and transfer of technology have finished their work. Both reports say it’s all guns firing for a final draft contract with negotiations to throttle up this month.
IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, and is likely to meet Defence Minister Arun Jaitley shortly to lay down acquisition priorities, a list known to be topped by the jet requirement. The M-MRCA has run for nearly 7 years now, though it’s nearly a decade-and-a-half old if you really look at when the IAF first put out requirements for a large quantity of medium multirole jets.
Dassault won’t be holding its breath, but there’s a spring in their step. (At least over the phone.) What I can tell you for sure is there’s a push from the system that simply wasn’t there since the Rafale was downselected over two years ago. More soon.
Track full coverage of the M-MRCA deal here.

16 thoughts on “Indian Rafale Deal Final By September. Any Breaths Held?”

  1. Hi Shiv ,

    In the Daily Mail link that you have provided in this article the Rafales that have come down to JOdhpur are sporting the IAF colors .

    Regards,

    Ajay

  2. Invest this money in LCA and AMCA programs. Will yield more benefits. A few years of pain will ensure that we will have our own proven fighter building capability.

  3. Invest this money in LCA and AMCA programs. Will yield more benefits. A few years of pain will ensure that we will have our own proven fighter building capability.

  4. Ajay, please check the roundels for both french and Indian air force. Ours is saffron white and green, theirs is red white and blue.

  5. The joke is that this plane design is 30 years old (1986 first flight) and so far grand total of 140 are in use. Cost 100 Million$

    Even Su-30 MKI and Tejas are younger in design age. Cost 25 to 60 million $

    F-35 is youngest and most modern fighter out there, superseding the Rafale by 20 years. Cost 100 million $

    Does the plane come with unlimited french wine package. This is STUPIDTY. But, we the smart Indians are prime target for dumping outdated stuff at outlandish price. Even the price seems racist to me….

    1. More than su 30mki ,su 35 would be much better @ same cost with 30. It has worlds best radar ,lower cross section,highrr range ,thrust ,better engine, t/w better.its best 4.5 gen plane

  6. Is it just me or anyone else also feels few similarities between this bird and LCA. 🙂

    The high cost involved in purchasing this bird will not go waste considering the very friendly neighbours that we have.

    I can understand they dont come cheap but they are not luxury items but are being procured so we stay safe.

    It is ours and govt's responsibility to increase country's income.

  7. NSR says —

    MMRCA competition is based on more than decade old needs and requirements…

    Now 40 and 120 km BVRAAM missiles will make Rafale dog fighting capabilities redundant….

    SU-35 with its advanced radar can see deeper (up to 400 km) and interdict farther to obviate a need for Rafale…

    Rafale is not right choice for India because of cost, technology transfer issues, armaments, avionics, etc…

    France controls the interface so all of the components and armaments comes from France only….

    France will forever will be supplying same avionics systems and armaments and will deny any of our own open architecture avionics or armaments…

    Just remember we are paying almost $45 million to upgrade the 30 year old Mirage 2000 and it does not include even a new engine…

    Right now we use Russian missiles in Tejas and western avionics in Migs and SU-30MKI….

    I say please do not buy the Rafale as SU-30MKI, Mig-29K, Tejas, Mirage-2000. Jaguar and residual Migs can take care of India until we get Tejas II and additional SU and Mig series…and upgrade them in Blocks by working with Russians and western avionics manufacturers to keep them sharp…

    China is begging Russia for SU-35S and finally they are going to buy 24 from them…

    India must buy 36 of them outright and use them as top dog sentry guarding China and Pakistan frontiers …
    While SU-30MKI, Mig-29, TejasII, Mirage 2000, Jaguar, residual Migs,, etc will pound the ground…

    SU-30MKI is almost as good as SU-35S for Indian needs…

    So please keep track of what is happening around and who is acquiring what and for what purposes, and then write very informative articles…

    It will make this forum a very intelligent barnstormer for ideas…

    Remember $30 billions will create lots of aerospace infrastructure, jobs, etc forever in India for Indians…

    Within 3 years there will be at least two dozen Tejas flying non stop…

  8. NSR says —

    MMRCA competition is based on more than decade old needs and requirements…

    Now 40 and 120 km BVRAAM missiles will make Rafale dog fighting capabilities redundant….

    SU-35 with its advanced radar can see deeper (up to 400 km) and interdict farther to obviate a need for Rafale…

    Rafale is not right choice for India because of cost, technology transfer issues, armaments, avionics, etc…

    France controls the interface so all of the components and armaments comes from France only….

    France will forever will be supplying same avionics systems and armaments and will deny any of our own open architecture avionics or armaments…

    Just remember we are paying almost $45 million to upgrade the 30 year old Mirage 2000 and it does not include even a new engine…

    Right now we use Russian missiles in Tejas and western avionics in Migs and SU-30MKI….

    I say please do not buy the Rafale as SU-30MKI, Mig-29K, Tejas, Mirage-2000. Jaguar and residual Migs can take care of India until we get Tejas II and additional SU and Mig series…and upgrade them in Blocks by working with Russians and western avionics manufacturers to keep them sharp…

    China is begging Russia for SU-35S and finally they are going to buy 24 from them…

    India must buy 36 of them outright and use them as top dog sentry guarding China and Pakistan frontiers …
    While SU-30MKI, Mig-29, TejasII, Mirage 2000, Jaguar, residual Migs,, etc will pound the ground…

    SU-30MKI is almost as good as SU-35S for Indian needs…

    So please keep track of what is happening around and who is acquiring what and for what purposes, and then write very informative articles…

    It will make this forum a very intelligent barnstormer for ideas…

    Remember $30 billions will create lots of aerospace infrastructure, jobs, etc forever in India for Indians…

    Within 3 years there will be at least two dozen Tejas flying non stop…

  9. but where is the money? economic realities of the country are not going to change by September regardless of Mr Modi.

  10. 20billion $ for decade old rafale fighter. Thanks to UPA. its complete life cycle will cost this junk 40 billion$. Canand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia every one rejected except India's IAF. Again Thanks to UPA. Even at this 40 billion $ cost we will not get even 80% technology transfer of this rafale deal. i think we should go for Saab grippen cheaper and proven fighter. PMO nd MOD plz cencel this rafale deal. we cant afford rafale fighter. saab gripen will cost 5k$ per hour in air while rafale will cost 15k $ per hour. this is day time robbery by france. we must cancel this deal.

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