New Delhi, Balasore: India is buying 126 French-made combat aircraft in a massive $11 billion deal that will update its military with the first exported Rafale jets, officials said yesterday.
Dassault Aviation said it was honoured to extend cooperation with India, which has a fleet of its older Mirage jets, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy welcomed India's decision.
Dassault snapped up the £8.4 billion deal with the lowest bid in a two-way competition against the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, said an Indian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to reporters about the sensitive defense deal.
India has become the world's biggest arms importer as an economic boom has allowed it to push modernisation of its military, and it is being wooed by major international arms manufacturers as it replaces its obsolete Soviet-era weapons and buys new equipment.
Growing concerns in New Delhi about China's fast-expanding military might, as well as India's decades-old mistrust of Pakistan, have fuelled India's impetus to add heft to its defence forces.
India's air force, with around 700 fighter aircraft before the Rafale deal, is the world's fourth largest, after the United States, Russia and China.
The deal is the 1st foreign deal for Dassault's Rafale fighter jets.
Planes from Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin of the US and from Russian and Swedish makers were dropped from consideration earlier for technical reasons.
Eighteen fighter aircraft will be delivered in "fly away" condition within 36 months and the remaining 108 are to be built by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. through technology transfers.
Defence ministry experts were still fine-tuning pricing details, including the cost of on-board weaponry and royalties for producing the aircraft in India. Sarkozy said contract negotiations will begin "very soon."
"The reported $5 million difference between the candidates is exceptionally small, and indicates this was a very close race - practically a photo finish," said Endre Lunde, a consultant with IHS Jane's Defence Weekly.
Meanwhile, India yesterday successfully tested the indigenously developed pilotless target aircraft Lakshya from a military base in Odisha, official sources said.
It was test-flown from the integrated test range (ITR) at Chandipur in Balasore, 215 km from the capital Bhubaneswar, around 11.40am.
Lakshya, a sub-sonic, reusable aerial target system, is remote-controlled from the ground and designed to impart training to pilots for weapon engagements.
