India Commences Talks With France To Acquire Jaguar Fighter Jets

India has initiated negotiation talks with France for the purchase of 31 grounded strike fighters previously used by the French Air Force.

The French government made the offer of sale for the Jaguar fighters about six months ago. Though India is actively acquiring them, it further clarified that it would be acquiring only after proper refurbishment.

Discussion about the offer would be held during an official visit to France July 17-20, India's Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa was quoted as saying by DefenseNews Monday.

During his visit, Dhanoa will inspect the license production of Rafale aircraft for India at Dassault Aviation manufacturing facilities and will fly a sortie in a Rafale aircraft.

The two countries signed a €7.8 billion (U.S. $8.9 billion) intergovernmental agreement on Sept. 23, 2016, under which 36 Rafale fighter aircraft in fly-away condition will be procured from Dassault Aviation for the Indian Air Force.

Per the contract, France will invest 30 percent of the €7.8 billion in India's military aeronautics-related research programs and 20 percent into the local production of Rafale components to fulfil the mandatory offsets under the deal.

India will receive the first six Rafale aircrafts in September 2019, and delivery of all 36 fighters will be completed by the end of 2022. Dassault Aviation will also make specific changes for India and mount new-generation Meteor and Scalp missiles.

Negotiations for the Rafale deal began immediately after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in April 2015 in Paris his wish to buy the fighters for the Indian Air Force in fly-away condition.

Of the €7.8 billion, the platform costs approximately €3.42 billion; another €1.8 billion is for infrastructure and support supplies; €1.7 billion will be spent to meet India-specific changes to the aircraft; €710 million is for the additional weapons package; and €353 million is the cost of performance-based logistics support.

So far, three upgraded Jaguar DARIN III prototypes have been developed and about 60 Jaguar aircraft will be modernized in three years' time, which will give operational life to the aircraft for another 20 years.

HAL has built 120 Jaguar deep-penetration strike aircraft under technology transfer from BAE Systems of the United Kingdom.

About a decade ago, India was negotiating the purchase of 12 used Mirage 2000-5 aircraft from Qatar and 40 Mirage 2000 variants including Mirage 2000-9 from the United Arab Emirates, but negotiations failed over the price.