NEW DELHI: The mega almost Rs 64,000 crore (Euro 6.6 billion) deal with France for the direct acquisition of 26 Rafale-Marine fighter jets, which will operate from the deck of indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, has been cleared by the PM-led cabinet committee on security.
The government-to-government deal for the 22 single-seat Rafale-M jets and four twin-seat trainers, which includes weapons, simulators, crew training and five-year performance-based logistics support, will now be inked within the next few days, sources said.
The deal also includes upgrades, equipment and spares for the 36 Rafales already inducted by the IAF under the Rs 59,000 crore contract inked in Sept 2016.
The 26 Rafale-M fighters, with “specific enhancements” for the Navy, will be delivered in 37 to 65 months after inking of the contract. “The new inter-governmental agreement mirrors the one inked in the IAF deal. All the 26 jets are to be delivered by 2030-31,” a source said.
The Rajnath Singh-led Defence Acquisitions Council (DAC) last Sept had approved four “amendments” to the deal, which included dropping the proposed integration of the AESA (advanced electronically scanned array) radar being developed by DRDO with the French fighters, which would have proven “very costly and time-consuming”, sources said.
The Navy currently has only 40 of the 45 MiG-29K jets, inducted from Russia at a cost of $2 billion from 2009 onwards, to operate from the decks of its two over 40,000-tonne aircraft carriers, the older Russian-origin INS Vikramaditya and the new indigenous INS Vikrant. The MiG-29Ks have also been dogged by poor serviceability and other problems over the years.
With the indigenous twin-engine deck-based fighter (TEDBF) likely to take at least a decade to become operational, the Navy had pushed for the 26 Rafale-M jets as an interim measure.
Another mega deal with France, the Rs 33,500 crore one for the three additional diesel-electric Scorpene submarines to be constructed by Mazagon Docks (MDL) in collaboration with the French M/s Naval Group, is also now being finalised, as was reported by TOI earlier.
The three new Scorpenes will have “some design modifications and improvements” over the first six such Kalvari-class vessels constructed at MDL for over Rs 23,000 crore.
The first of the three additional Scorpenes will roll out of MDL in six years, followed by the other two at intervals of a year each, after the contract is inked. The deal’s cost does not yet include the price of fitting them with the fuel cell-based air-independent propulsion (AIP) developed by DRDO for greater underwater endurance.
