The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Wednesday cleared the final draft of the inter-governmental agreement to be signed with France. Filel photo
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 21When India and France ink their much-awaited contract to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets on Friday, it will not only bridge a two-decade gap in procuring new fighter jets for the Indian Air Force (IAF) but will provide a technological-edge.The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Wednesday cleared the final draft of the inter-governmental agreement to be signed with France.
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The Indian Air Force has not procured any new fighter jets since the start of this century, the last one being the Sukhoi 30-MKI from Russia that was first ordered in mid-1990’s and since licence- produced in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).On Friday, the two countries are set to sign a 7.878 billion euros (approximately Rs 58,828 crore) contract with Dassault Aviation of France for these 36 Rafale jet fighters. This means approximately Rs 1,634 crore for each plane that will add to teeth to the IAF’s fleet — presently operating at its lowest force levels in a decade.The first of the jet from France is to be delivered in 36 months that is September 2019 and the entire lot will be delivered over the following thirty months.The French company will make India-specific changes, such as next generation missiles like Meteor and Scalp, which will add capability much beyond India’s immediate adversaries. The Meteor, is a BVR (Beyond Visual Range) air-to-air missile with a range in excess of 150 km. It will allow IAF to hit targets inside both Pakistan and Tibet from within its own territory. The Scalp is a long-range air-to- cruise missile with a range of 300 km.The Ministry of Defence and the IAF team that negotiated the price have secured a concession of almost 722 million euros (approximately Rs 5,390 crore). In January this year, a day before French President François Hollande and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were to jointly issue a statement during the French President’s visit to India, the French team had quoted a price of 8.6 billion euros.The negotiations ended at a price of 7.898 billion euros, sources in the Ministry of Defence said. Of this, 3.42 billion euros is the cost of the bare planes; 1.8 billion euros is associate supplies for the infrastructure and support; 1.7 billion euros is India-specific changes to the plane; 710 million euros is the additional weapons package and 353 million euros is the cost of ‘Performance-based Logistics Support’.Under this logistics support, Dassault will ensure that at least 75 per cent of the fleet remains operational or air worthy at any given time under what is called the existing frontline fighter, the Sukhoi 30-MKI has only 60 per cent availability.Other concessions include are free training for nine IAF personnel, additional guarantee for 60 hours of usage of training aircraft for Indian pilots and six months of free weapons storage without charge.Under the originally planned (and now scrapped) proposal to produce 126 planes in India, the first batch of 18 planes were to be manufactured in France and 108 were to be manufactured in India. France cited that cost of man hours (labour) in India need to produce a plane was 2.7 times higher due to lack of automation. This along would have meant additional Rs 150 crore per plane.