Dassault, Thales, MBDA win $2.4 billion Indian Mirage 2000 Upgrade Deal

The Indian cabinet has cleared a US$2.4 billion proposal by the French company Dassault for upgrading India’s Mirage 2000 aircraft with beyond visual range missiles, navigation, communications and electronic warfare equipment. The clearance came on Wednesday at a meeting of India’s supreme defence policy-making body, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) which is chaired by the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. The news of the clearance was revealed by official Indian sources. The upgrade will make the two-decade old planes nearly as potent as the Rafale and Eurofighter which are competing in a tender to provide Indian $10 billion worth of warplanes to replace several types of Russian origin warplanes. The upgrade will be carried out at by Dassault in France for the first few planes while the bulk of the two squadron strong fleet will be upgraded at India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in Bangalore. The cost of the upgrade may work out to $7.9 million per aircraft, with the French firm, Thales being the lead integrator and missile manufacturer, MBDA will be the missile systems supplier. The weapons include over 400 MICA interception and aerial combat missiles for beyond visual range firing. The upgrade is to be performed over a period of nine years.