Dassault Not Attaching Time Limit to Indian Rafale Deal

France’s Dassault Aviation is not attaching any firm time limit to the conclusion of negotiation and the signing of a contract with India on the purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft.

Dassault Aviation chief Eric Trappier said on Friday that the signing of the Indian order could happen “in the weeks or months ahead.” He was speaking at a Dassault Aviation facility for Falcon jets in Gironde, France, French media reported.

He however sounded optimistic about increasing the hiring of staff for the Rafale project stating that there would be hundreds of hires in the coming months to enable the company to treble production of the fighter aircraft which has firm orders from France, Egypt and Qatar and expected orders from India and the UAE.

Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief Arup Raha had said earlier this month that he hoped that the contract signing would happen by this year end.

Despite a high level delegation from the French armaments directorate sent in the last week of September to hasten up the negotiations with India, neither side has reported any significant progress in talks.

Various media reports have described offsets, number of air bases in India, the weapons configuration and price as the sticking points in the negotiations.

A report in India's The Hindu newspaper said that French side had reservations over the role of an Indian private industry conglomerete which was being recommended by the government as a potential offsets partner in the Rafale deal.