Rafale fighter deal with Dassault might be finalised this year: report
03 Jun 2014
India expects to close the $20 billion deal to buy 126 Rafale fighter jets from France's Dassault Aviation within three months, according to a Times of India report.
The Indian Air Force and defence establishment had picked the Rafale fighters for exclusive negotiations in January 2012, but a plan to finalise the deal by March this year was postponed owing to lack of funds (See: Rafale fighter deal put off as India's defence budget exhausted).
Completion of the deal would mean the first 18 Rafale jets would arrive from mid-2016, with manufacture of the remaining 108 beginning in India in 2018, the report said, citing defence ministry sources.
A defence ministry official told Reuters the new government had just moved into position and it was too early to talk about wrapping up the jet fighter negotiations.
"The report is speculative; the defence minister has not applied his mind to the issue as yet. He is busy with budget meetings," the official said. Dassault declined to comment.
India, the world's biggest arms importer, is in the midst of a $100 billion defence modernisation programme to replace Soviet-era planes and tanks. But the upgrade programme moved slowly under the last government.
Technical negotiations on the Rafale order were concluded in March and financial talks are under way. The company has said previously that it hopes to sign a deal by the end of the year.
Dassault chief executive Eric Trappier said in May that his firm expects to sign a deal to sell the Rafale jets to India by the end of 2014. The optimism followed the election of business-friendly Narendra Modi as the nation's prime minister.
"It's reassuring for us, because I think that will accelerate the process further," Trappier said on 19 May on the sidelines of the Ebace business aviation show.
