Dassault Reliance JV to Manufacture Rafale, Falcon Parts in India

Eric Trappier, the chairman of French Dassault Aviation has said that certain parts of Rafale fighter jets and Falcon commercial jet are going to be manufactured in India’s Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL’s) manufacturing facility at Mihan in Nagpur.

With production from DRAL expected to start as early as 2018 and the first Rafale expected to land in India in 2019, Eric Trappier said in an interview with the Hindu during his recent visit to India to lay the foundation stone of DRAL manufacturing facility Sunday.

The chairman asserted that if there are more orders, Dassault would look at manufacturing here (India).  “Manufacturing in India is going to be the next step and it depends upon the new orders. For the new orders for Rafale, the jet would be made totally in India,” Trappier said.

As of now, we are proposing it to the government but it’s up to the government to go ahead. We will deliver the support. We now have the capability to manufacture the aircraft in India. We think we have the right tools to convince the government for repeat orders, he said.

With our partner Reliance, we also intend to manufacture our business jet Falcon. The first Falcon will soon take off from Indian soil, Eric said when asked about its relationship with Reliance.

As chairman of French Aerospace Industries Association, I will lead a big delegation of French SMEs here in the coming months. Our facility here will support over 200 SMEs to secure the component and avionics manufacturing needs of Rafale and Falcon jets. It’s not only about Rafale and Dassault. Our French partners and partners of the Reliance Group will set up their facilities here, he added.