Reduced Importance For HAL In India-France Rafale Deal?

With feelers coming from Paris that India is likely to buy 60 Dassault Rafale aircraft in fly away condition for $7.5 billion, Indian Public Sector Company; Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) might not be called upon to assemble 108 aircraft.

India is set to change terms of the MMRCA deal. The number of aircraft is half of 126 jets the Indian Air Force (IAF) had tendered for, 18 of which were to be acquired direct. The new proposed deal provides for the purchase "off the shelf" of 42 additional Rafale, that is to be made in France and not in India as provided in the main contract.

The new deal is expected to be government-to – government which means it will not be subject to complex negotiations as under a public tender.

The final MMRCA deal is yet to be signed by both the nations. However HAL will no longer be lead integrator as was originally proposed. Instead it may come in at a later stage when India may buy the balance of the 126 aircraft.

It may take Dassault 5-6 years to deliver 60 aircraft considering a production schedule of 10-12 aircraft a year. Until then HAL may not have much to do or say in the Rafale deal.

India has been in negotiations for last three years with France’s Dassault Aviation for procurement of 126 Rafale jets. The major reason for stalling the finalization of the project was  price and work sharing.