It’s been more than two-and-a-half months since leaders of both India and France had suggested that the deal for the 36 French Rafale medium multi-role combat aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF) was ready to be sealed. However, such a deal doesn’t seem to be round the corner.
“The final deal for the 36 Rafale aircraft is still far away as the negotiations between the two sides is far from over as the French are not really ready to cut down the pricing to the level India wants,” highly placed sources in the ministry of defence (MoD) revealed.
According to MoD sources, though negotiations with French company Dassault were put on fast track in an effort to meet the last fiscal’s deadline, things are now stuck in price negotiations which means the deal is far from ready for the 2016-17 fiscal.
The Indian side is expecting that through negotiations, it will manage to strike a deal at $7 billion for 36 machines.
Talking to FE on conditions of anonymity, an officer who has been part of the negotiating team, said: “While the negotiations with the French company are on track, there are several other agencies involved in this project and it will be another few months before the negotiations are complete.”
Besides the price issue, the French are only keen on selling readymade machines, with technology transfer being out of the question, especially of the electronically scanned AESA radar, citing lack of maturity of the Indian defence industry to absorb critical technologies.
“We are still in the process of deciding whether there’s a need to order all spare parts that the aircraft will need for a period of either five or 10 years. Discussions are still going on about the kind of financial penalties to be imposed on the French aviation company, which is making the combat plane if the performance would be unsatisfactory,” a source in the MoD said.
“India is pushing for the deal to close between $5-6 billion for
36 aircraft and it should be inclusive of all the support and maintenance infrastructure,” an official revealed.
The final deal, when inked, is expected to include two types of missiles and bombs, training of pilots and two base facilities for the planes.
The delay in acquiring the Rafale aircraft comes despite the chief of the IAF, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, recently flagging concerns about the shortage of fighter jets.
Sources revealed the French are gradually losing interest in hard negotiations as their books are full with orders from the French Air Force, and Egypt and Qatar are buying too. The French company is also in negotiations with Canada, Belgium, the UAE and Malaysia for selling Rafale jets to these countries.
Source:- The Financial Express
The post Talks for 36 Rafale jets far from over appeared first on Defence Update.
from Defence Update http://ift.tt/1qqEMwD
via IFTTT
No comments: