India Spending Almost $25 billion for Next Aircraft Carrier

The Indian Navy is moving ahead with a big-ticket proposal for acquiring its third aircraft carrier which is expected to cost around Rs 1.6 lakh crore along with the additional component of 57 fighter aircraft.

The Navy has one operational aircraft carrier in the INS Vikramaditya while another one, INS Vikrant, is under construction at the Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) and is expected to join service in the next few years.

“The Navy is planning to field its Rs 70,000 crore proposal before the defence ministry in near future which will cost around Rs 1.6 lakh crore at the approval stage itself along with the fighter plane component and the actual costs will go higher further as the programme moves ahead,” government sources told Mail Today.

The Navy has plans of buying 57 twin-engine fighter planes for the third aircraft carrier for which American F-18 and French Dassault Rafale are in the race.

“If one goes by the cost of the 36 Rafales acquired for the Air Force, the 57 planes are not going to cost us less than Rs 90,000-95,000 crore,” the sources said.

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Some think it is a waste.

French may be Negotiating to Build Factory for Rafale Fighters in India

India's largest-ever military deal is likely to bring in big business for the private sector with the French side looking to set up a production centre for the Rafale fighter aircraft as well as a low-cost executive jet in India, besides sharing vital aircraft technology for the indigenous Tejas project.

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United Arab Emirates in Final Stages of Negotiating for Rafale Fighters

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is in the final stages of negotiations to buy French Rafale fighter jets, the head of the Gulf nation’s air force told Reuters on Wednesday.

Abu Dhabi, which is looking to purchase 60 fighters worth an estimated $10 billion, is studying the Dassault-built Rafale after rejecting the four-nation Eurofighter.

“I think we are in the final stage of negotiations,” Major General Ibrahim Nasser Al Alawi, commander of the UAE Air Force and Air Defence, said in an interview at the Dubai Airshow when asked how close the UAE was to a deal to buy the Rafale.

In Paris, the French defense ministry declined to comment and Dassault Aviation was not immediately available.

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Indian Air Force Needs Another 108 Rafale, may Consider Alternate Aircraft

Indian Air Force on Saturday said it would need at least six squadrons comprising 108 Rafale or similar jets to shore up its capabilities as it hoped that the contract for 36 French fighter aircraft would be inked by year-end.

Noting that two squadron of 18 Rafale jets each might not be enough, Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said his force would like to have at least six squadrons of the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA).

He hinted that even though the Rafale is the front- runner, India may go in for another aircraft with similar capabilities "if the deal is good".

"Definitely, we would like to have MMRCA variety of aircraft. At least about six squadrons to my mind. Let us see, there may be some other alternatives as well," Raha said addressing a press conference ahead of the Air Force Day on October 8.

He was replying to questions about the possibility of India Air Force wanting more than the 36 Rafales under a government to government deal announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his trip to France in April.

Asked if the additional four squadrons of aircraft will be Rafales or if there is a possibility of other players getting into play, Raha said, "I may wish to have Rafale. But there are equally good aircraft. So if the deal is good and the government decides we need to have six of similar squadron."

"There are alternatives. I cannot say I only want Rafale. I want capability of Rafale type aircraft. So the government will have a look at it and based on urgency and the type of contract is signed with Dassault Aviation, further decisions may be taken by the government. I cannot predict," he said.

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Report: Rafale Procurement Deal by India Could be Concluded Within 10 Days

India's purchase of French Rafale fighter jets could be concluded in about 10 days, a source with knowledge of talks on the deal told Reuters on Friday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in April he had ordered 36 Rafale fighters to modernize his country's warplane fleet, though detailed terms and conditions remained to be settled.

Modi had opted to deal directly with the French government after three years of inconclusive negotiations with the plane's manufacturer, Dassault.

"Things are getting better with India," the source said. "An agreement could be seen in about 10 days."

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India Formally Cancels MMRCA Procurement, Rafale Looks Good in Malayasia, UAE

As per the India-France Joint Statement issued by the two countries during the Prime Minister's visit to France, Government of India conveyed to the Government of France that in view of the critical operational necessity for Multirole Combat Aircraft for Indian Air Force (IAF), Government of India would like to acquire (36) Rafale jets in fly-away condition as quickly as possible. The two leaders agreed to conclude an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) for supply of the aircraft on terms that would be better than conveyed by Dassault Aviation as part of a separate process underway, the delivery would be in time-frame that would be compatible with the operational requirement of IAF; and that the aircraft and associated systems and weapons would be delivered on the same configuration as had been tested and approved by IAF, and with a longer maintenance responsibility by France.

A Negotiating Team has been constituted to negotiate the terms and conditions of the procurement of 36 Rafale jets and recommend a draft agreement. The meetings of the Indian Negotiating team with the French side have commenced.

The RFP issued earlier for procurement of 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) has been withdrawn. In this multi-vendor procurement case, the Rafale aircraft met all the performance characteristics stipulated in the Request for Proposal (RFP) during the evaluation conducted by Indian Air Force.

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However, it looks good for the Malayasians and for the United Arab Emirates. 

Dassault on a Roll: Qatar Buys 24 Rafale

Qatar has ended its long-running search for new strike aircraft with the decision to acquire 24 Dassault Rafales for the requirement.

The Gulf state has long been a customer of the French airframer, having previously operated the Mirage F1, Alpha Jet and Mirage 2000.

Flightglobal’s MiliCAS database records Doha as possessing an active inventory of 13 Mirage 2000s and six Alpha Jets.

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36 Indian, 36 Egyptian and now 24 from Qatar.  96 fighters.  Not a bad set of orders.

France, India Expect to Finish Rafale Negotiations by May's end

India and France aim to finalise the deal for 36 Dassault Rafale fighters for the Indian Air Force (IAF) by the end of May, according to defence industry sources.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is believed to have insisted on this deadline with his French counterpart Francois Hollande in Paris, soon after announcing the fighters' procurement on 10 April.

Once inked, the IAF will be the first customer, after the French Air Force, to acquire Rafales. Egypt has also agreed to buy 24 Rafales.

Meanwhile, a delegation comprising senior French government officials and top Dassault executives is expected in New Delhi over the next few days to begin negotiating the fighter contract, which is estimated at around USD5-6 billion. French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is likely to be part of this delegation, but no confirmation of his inclusion was possible.

Industry sources familiar with the ongoing talks between the two governments told IHS Jane's that Dassault is reported to have agreed to more than double its annual Rafale building capacity from 11 to 24 aircraft. The company had slowed down Rafale production rate to around 11 platforms per year as no new orders were forthcoming.

The French government is also believed to have persuaded its air force to reduce its Rafale induction until the IAF contract is fulfilled.

Indian defence minister Manohar Parrikar told the Mail Today newspaper on 16 April that the accounting process for the Rafales would be completed within 2-3 months and deliveries would begin in 18 months. "So roughly it [the contract] will take three years," he said.

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India Scapping MMRCA Negotiations?

Any future Indian purchase of Rafale jets will come through direct talks with the French government, the defence minister said on Monday, effectively killing commercial negotiations for a larger deal with Dassault Aviation.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced a plan to buy 36 planes from Dassault through the government-to-government route, after three years of price negotiations for local assembly of the aircraft produced no results.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said Modi's decision came after commercial negotiations went into a "vortex". He stopped short, though, of saying the government had scrapped talks on a contract with Dassault for 126 planes worth up to $20 billion.

"This had to be done to break the vortex," he said, adding that the preferred method was now to talk directly to the French government, rather than return to commercial negotiations.

"Instead of going through the RFP (Request For Proposal bidding process), where there is lot of confusion, chaos, it is now the situation that 36 will be procured ready to fly. What is to be done with the rest will have to be discussed," Parrikar said.

A decision to abandon commercial talks would end what had been touted as one of the world's biggest defence deals and could give hope to rival manufacturers, experts said.

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India Orders 36 Rafale 4th Generation Fighters

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday he had asked France to supply his air force with 36 Rafale fighter jets, after years of wrangling over the deal.

"I asked the President (Francois Hollande) to supply us with 36 Rafale jet fighter planes, the ready-to-fly models," Modi said at a joint news conference at the Elysee Palace.

"France has always been a reliable supplier for India from jet fighters to submarines," said Modi.

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It ought to be noted that the Indian Ministry of Defense has inquired repeatedly if they can buy F-35s and have been met with silence.

Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) Defends Ability to Manufacture Rafale Fighters

Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) chairman T Suvarnaraju has hit back at reports that an Indian deal to obtain 126 Dassault Rafale fighters is being held up by French concerns about the Indian manufacturer’s quality standards.

Suvaranraju was addressing the media at the Aero India show in Bengaluru, where local journalists have shown great interest in the Rafale programme and the HAL’s helicopter businesses.

Suvarnaraju stressed his faith in HAL’s products, adding that it produces components and structures for a number of major aircraft types, such as the forward doors for the Airbus A320 and the gun bay doors and wire harnesses for the Boeing F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet. The company has also worked on Boeing’s commercial programmes, including the 737 and 777, he said, and pointed to its long record in license-producing types such as the Sukhoi Su-30MKI, BAE Systems Hawk and Dornier 228.

Nonetheless, Suvarnaraju declines to confirm or deny persistent reports that Dassault is dubious about guaranteeing fighters produced by HAL. Under the original terms of the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) requirement, the first 18 Rafales are to be produced in France, and the subsequent 108 in India by HAL.

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Egypt Buys 24 Rafale Fighters From France

France announced Thursday it will sell 24 Rafale fighters plus a frigate to Egypt in a 5 billion euro ($5.7 billion) deal that is the first foreign contract for the multi-role combat jet.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will travel to Cairo on Monday to sign the contact with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a ministry source told AFP.

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This is as the deal with India seems to be flaming out over Dassault being unwilling to provide a warranty on the Rafale produced in India.

Egypt may Procure Rafale Fighters

It seems Egypt and France signed an MOU for the procurement of 20 Rafale and two FREMM frigates.

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India's Negotiations for French Rafale Fighters Hits Complications

India's long-delayed procurement of 126 Dassault Rafale fighter aircraft has once again run into "complications", defence minister Manohar Parrikar admitted on 30 December.

Parrikar did not specify these difficulties at a press conference in New Delhi, but tellingly stated that additional licence-built Sukhoi Su-30MKI multirole fighters would be "adequate" for the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the event of the Rafale deal being scrapped.

"The Su-30MKI is an adequate aircraft for meeting the air force's needs," Parrikar said, adding that at INR3.58 billion (USD59.66 million) each, the unit cost of the Su-30MKIs being licence-built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was less than half that of a Rafale.

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Canadian Government Report Questions Utility of F-35 Purchase Given "Canadian engagement in future state-on-state conflicts will be highly unlikely"

A new Canadian government report suggests other fighter jets are just as capable as the Lockheed Martin F-35A at fulfilling the nation’s most likely mission needs, potentially opening the door to a competitive acquisition process to replace a fleet of 77 Boeing CF-18s.

Four aircraft – the F-35, the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Dassault Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon – were compared in the report, called the Evaluation of Options for the Replacement of the CF-18 Fighter Fleet.

Each was assessed on its ability to carry out six mission sets including defence of Canadian airspace, responding to an “international event”, such as the Olympics, in Canada or a terrorist attack, peace enforcement, humanitarian disaster relief and state-on-state war fighting.

All aircraft were deemed low-risk candidates to perform each of the missions up to 2030 and beyond, except in fighting another peer nation. In that category, all the aircraft were deemed a higher risk platform beyond 2030 and none distinguished itself.

Canada does not intend to fight state-on-state wars and rated that contingency as highly unlikely. In the state-on-state war fighting mission, the range was from low to significant in the first timeframe and medium to high in the second timeframe “largely due to the higher level of potential threat confronting fighter aircraft in that mission and the evolution of those threats”, the report says.

“The mission needs analysis undertaken as part of the evaluation of options makes clear that Canadian engagement in future state-on-state conflicts will be highly unlikely,” the report says.

It is more likely that Canada will join in on coalition military actions not “clearly defined state-on-state warfare or explicitly humanitarian assistance missions but rather, as in the case of Libya or Kosovo, something in between,” the report says.

For now, the Harper Administration in Canada still intends to buy 65 F-35s beginning in 2020. Its third annual report on the cost of potentially replacing its fleet of CF-18s with the jet assumes an average per-unit cost of $88.9 million over the period of acquisition. That tallies up to a total $45.8 billion over the life cycle of the fleet, a $141 million increase over the estimate in the 2013 report.

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Report: Qatar to Buy *72* Rafale Fighters

Dassault Aviation SA (AM) is poised to win a contract from Qatar for 72 Rafale jets, a French government official said, indicating the jet may have its first export contract before India signs a commitment for 126 units.

A contract would probably come in two batches of 36 aircraft, the official said. The topic will be discussed when Qatar ruler Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani visits France next week, as negotiations continue. The Qatari Ministry of Defense and Dassault Aviation had no comment.

Sales abroad are critical to European and U.S. defense contractors as they look overseas to offset declining domestic spending and keep production alive. France’s only maker of fighter planes has so far failed to clinch any export order for the Rafale, even as its prior fighter saw three quarters of sales from export orders. India is in exclusive talks with Dassault, though it has yet to seal a deal.

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They currently operate 12 Mirage 2000 fighters.

Belgium Offers RFI for F-16 Replacement

The Belgian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has issued a request for information (RFI) to five foreign government agencies regarding various aircraft that could replace the national air force's ageing F-16 Fighting Falcon fleet.

Several defence ministry officials were quoted by Belga News Agency as saying that the RFI does not commit to a future purchase nor to the selection of a specific aircraft, but "aims to gather information" beyond the open-source data used for initial evaluation.

One of the sources said that the RFI was issued following approval from the outgoing defence minister Pieter De Crem, and does not mention the number of aircraft to be acquired.

Issued to the Joint Program Office (JPO), the Navy Integrated Program Office (NIPO), the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) of the French Ministry of Defence, the Swedish Defence and Security Export Agency (FXM) and the UK Ministry of Defence, the RFI marks the first step in a process that will lead to the acquisition of a new fighter before the retirement of the F-16s starts in 2023.

While JPO is in charge of Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II programme, the NIPO, DGA, FXM and UK MoD look after Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet, Dassault Rafale, Saab JAS-39 Gripen, and Eurofighter Typhoon multi-role combat aircraft, respectively.

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India's Rafale Fighter Procurement Bogging Down

India’s much-awaited purchase of 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) for the Indian air force from French firm Dassault Aviation will be further delayed as negotiations to calculate the life-cycle cost haven’t been settled and there is no money for any new buys, Defense Minister A. K. Antony says.

“The MMRCA will materialize, [but] it will not be in this financial year [ending March 31],” Antony says. “The negotiations on life-cycle costs are continuing. I hope we will be able to close it [during the] next financial year.”

Here at the opening of India’s 8th DefExpo biennial exposition, Antony acknowledged that most of India’s procurement programs are stalled for the time being.

“We have already spent 92% of our capital budget for 2013-14 fiscal and there is no money this year for new projects. Major procurements are humanly possible only in [the] next financial year,” Antony says.

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India's Rafale contract will not now be signed before the country's elections as most of the current defence budget has now been spent

Cost hikes and disputes over licensed production have further bogged down the deal

Indian Defence Minister A K Antony on 6 February ruled out all chances of inking the deal for 126 Dassault Rafale fighters before national elections - expected by May - due to budgetary constraints.

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Report: France's Rafale Fails to Close Contract With Brazilian Air Force

France will lose out in its bid to win a multibillion-dollar fighter jet contract with Brazil, the Folha de Sao Paulo daily reported Saturday.

The newspaper set France’s $4 billion proposal for 36 Rafale fighter jets, from a consortium led by French giant Dassault, will be shot down for cost reason. It did not say who would be the likely winner of the highly prized contract.

The French bid is up against Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet and the Gripen, made by Sweden’s Saab, for its FX-2 program.

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