NEW DELHI: In a big step towards inking the 114 Rafale jet agreement, France has submitted its detailed technical and commercial proposal to India for the deal. The initial cost estimation for the Indo-French proposed jet agreement is around Rs 3.25 lakh crore.French officials have submitted their response to India’s letter of request for buying 114 Rafale multirole fighter jets, and it is now being studied by the defence ministry and IAF, defence sources told TOI.The Indian side will closely analyse the French response to see whether its demand for allowing it to integrate indigenous missiles like Astra air-to-air missiles has been met. Once the Indian govt is satisfied with the response, final cost negotiations will go on. After satisfactory talks on the deal package and cost, the Cabinet Committee on Security will clear the agreement and then the two countries, under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron, will sign the big-ticket defence deal structured through an intergovernmental agreement. India is hopeful to ink the agreement by the year-end.Under the proposed deal, 94 of the 114 fighter jets are planned to be manufactured in India through a partnership between French company Dassault Aviation and an Indian firm under the ‘Make-in-India’ initiative. The remaining aircraft are expected to be delivered in fly-away condition from France. The indigenous content of the jets would be nearly 50%.Besides the deal for 114 Rafale jets, the Indian Navy is separately procuring 26 Rafale Marine aircraft from Dassault for carrier operations, for which the agreement was inked on April 28 last year. The IAF already operates 36 Rafales received under the Sept 2016 intergovernmental agreement.With the proposed acquisition of 114 Rafale aircraft, the total number of Rafales in India’s inventory could rise to 176. Indian Navy has also expressed its intent to induct 31 more of Rafale’s Navy version to tackle maritime threats, and that may take the number of Rafales in the country to over 200.India’s Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) programme is meant to address the critical capability gap in the IAF and check the depleting strength of its fighter squadrons, which have gone down to an alarming 29 from an ideal 42.5 squadrons, which are needed to effectively tackle a two-front security threat from Pakistan and China.
