Rafale, Scorpene deals likely during PM Modi's France visit

India may purchase 26 Rafale-Marine combat aircraft for the navy from France in a government-to-government contract besides inking a deal to manufacture three additional Scorpene class submarines at Mazgaon dock with a French armament major providing the technology.

The two key pacts are likely to be signed between the two nations during the upcoming France visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will be the Chief Guest at the French Bastille Day parade later this week.

The Defence Procurement Board cleared the two big ticket deals worth Rs 90,000 crore on Monday, government sources told ANI. An approval from the Defence Acquisition Council headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh may happen in the next few days.

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The final price will be determined after officials from both sides sit together to negotiate the commercial contract. Such a mechanism was put in place during the IAF’s 36 Rafale deal.

The Rafale-M aircraft will take-off and land on the decks of India’s two aircraft carriers INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant. They will serve the Indian Navy till the time India comes out with its own twin-engine deck-based fighter aircraft.

Following extensive trials of Dassault Aviation’s Rafale-M and Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet deck borne fighter jets, Indian Navy is learnt to have opted for the former in its report submitted to the Defence Ministry. As per the proposal, the Navy will get 22 fighters and four two-seater trainers.

There is no official word on the navy’s choice as well as on the deals that may happen during the Prime Minister’s visit to France on July 13-14.

Another long-awaited military deal on which both sides were working is to make helicopter engines in India with 100% technology transfer from the French major Safran. But there is no clarity whether the engine deal would also be announced during the Modi visit.

The deal to manufacture three more Scorpene submarines stems from the “repeat order” clause of the Project-75 under which six submarines were built at Mazgaon dock with French major Naval Group (earlier DCNS) supplying the technology. Five of the six submarines have entered the service while the sixth one is undergoing trial.

The navy has been pressing the government for both of these deals for quite some time because of the poor serviceability record of MiG-29K deck borne fighters and depleting strength of its underwater arms.