India will only buy 36 Rafale jets from France instead of previously agreed 126
Asia-Pacific, News May 31, 2015 2 Comments on India will only buy 36 Rafale jets from France instead of previously agreed 126NEW DELHI (India) — India will only buy 36 Rafale fighter jets as they are “way too expensive”, the defence minister said Sunday, dashing lingering French hopes of a larger deal that has been years in the making.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said the previous government’s plans to buy 126 of the fighter jets from French firm Dassault were “economically unviable and not required”.
“We are not buying the rest. We are only buying the direct 36,” Parrikar told reporters.
During a visit to France in April, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that New Delhi was ordering 36 of the “ready to fly” planes.
The deal — estimated to be worth five billion euros ($5.5 billion) — followed tortuous years-long negotiations on buying the jets.
But the purchase agreement fell a long way short of previous proposals for India to buy 126. Frustrating negotiations for that deal stalled over costs and assembly guarantees.
Parrikar has since played down expectations of a larger deal, but his comments on Sunday were some of his strongest yet, saying buying more of the jets would blow the defence ministry’s procurement budget.
The deal would have required around Rs 1.3 lakh crore over a period of 10-11 years, he added.
“I also feel like having a BMW and Mercedes. But I don’t because I can’t afford it. First I can’t afford it and second I don’t need it,” Parrikar told media
Parrikar said a committee set up to nail down details of purchasing the 36 would complete its work in the next two to three months.
The French and Indian leaders issued a joint statement on April 10 announcing the scaling down of the 2012 contract on the supply of 126 Rafale jets to India.
On Sunday, Parrikar said he expected the contract to be worked out within the next two to three months.
The multi-billion dollar project has long been clouded by uncertainty due to its high costs and Dassault’s unwillingness to guarantee the performance of Rafale aircraft produced in India under transfer of technology agreements.
India has in recent years launched a vast defence modernisation programme worth some $100 billion, partly to keep up with rival neighbours Pakistan and China.
Since coming to power one year ago, Modi’s government has approved a string of contracts for new military hardware that had stalled under the previous left-leaning Congress party.
Modi, a hardline nationalist premier, also wants to end India’s status as the world’s number one defence importer and to have 70 percent of hardware manufactured domestically by the turn of the decade.
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[…] the Rafale lose out to its foreign competitors. In a further coup for French military exports, India in April ordered 36 Rafales in a multibillion-euro deal that took years to […]
[…] deal comes after 17 months of tough negotiations since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision in April 2015 for direct purchase of the […]