NEW DELHI — The Indian Defense Ministry has started talking about a historic proposal from the Indian Air Force to buy 114 more Rafale fighter planes. The contract is likely to be valued more than ₹2 lakh crore. The project is a big step toward strengthening India’s own defense manufacturing. The focus is on building the planes in India with the help of French company Dassault Aviation.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) sent in the proposal, which is called the “Statement of Case (SoC).” It is now being looked at by other parts of the Defence Ministry, including the Defence Finance department. After these discussions, the proposal will be sent to the Defence Procurement Board (DPB) in the next few weeks. The Defence Secretary is in charge of the DPB. If it gets the go light, it will go to the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) and then to the Cabinet Committee on Security.
If this purchase goes through, it will be the biggest defense contract the Indian government has ever signed. It is likely to greatly improve the IAF’s ability to fight, raising the total number of Rafale planes in India’s fleet to 176. The Indian Air Force (IAF) presently holds 36 Rafales, and the Indian Navy has placed a separate order for 36 Rafale Marine fighters.
The impetus for this purchase has grown stronger because the Rafale fighters did so well in Operation Sindoor, where their superior Spectra Electronic Warfare suite stopped Chinese PL-15 air-to-air missiles employed by the Pakistan Air Force. The new planes should also have longer-range air-to-ground missiles than the SCALP, which worked well for attacking targets inside Pakistan.
The “Made in India” part of the concept is quite important, and more than 60% of the content will come from India. The French side is fully behind this goal. Dassault has already set up a company in India to take care of maintenance for French-made fighter jets. Hyderabad will also get a Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) facility for the M-88 engines. It is envisaged that Indian aerospace companies, such as Tata, will be very important to the manufacturing process.
The procurement is considered as an important move for the IAF, which needs to grow its fighter squadron strength quickly to deal with changing security concerns in the region. The future fighter structure of the force is expected to include a mix of Russian-made Su-30 MKIs, Rafales, and Indian-made projects like the LCA Mark1A and the fifth-generation fighter jet, which India expects to buy a lot of after 2035.