New Delhi: As per the Ministry of Defense in India, the negotiations for buying the Thirty- six French Rafale Fighter Jets are almost at the end and the sources further said that the price will be set at around Nine Billion dollars i.e. approximately 65,000 crores of rupees.
Moreover, it is pointed that both the sides to the negotiation were hoping to close up the said decision while the visit of the President- Francois Hollande in India’s Republic Day celebration in the month of January, however, the hard bargaining in connection with the price had stalled the final conclusion.
It was also seen, in the month of April, 2015, the Indian Prime Minister- Narendra Modi has announced in the Paris that the country- India would buy the fighter jets of France, under the deal which will be concluded between Government- to- Government, scrapping the original plan to purchase Rafales of around 126 in number after commercial negotiations with plane- maker Dassault Aviation collapsed.
As such, notably, Rafale in this context is the outcome of the France launched programme named Rafale which France wanted to deploy an omnirole fighter to replace 7 different types of combat aircraft operated by it. It is notable again that the India will be the 3rd country in the world, which will be purchasing Rafale. The first two countries are Egypt and Qatar. Moreover, in Afghanistan, Mali and Libya, the plane has seen combat.
It was seen in the year 2001, the Indian Air Force projected a requirement for the medium, multi- role combat aircraft, for replacing the ageing Soviet- era fighter jets in its fleet. It was also seen that in the year 2007, India has floated a global tender for purchasing the 126 modern combat planes for boosting the offensive capabilities of Indian Air force.
It is further notable that India is in requirement of Forty- five fighter squadrons for countering a combined threat from China and Pakistan, however, it has only Thirty- four squadrons with about eighteen planes each. Thus, now it is set to buy such Rafale from France in its so called concluding negotiations.
