SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Since the completion of deliveries of all 36 contracted Rafale fighter jets to India, France along with Dassault Aviation have been trying to secure a second round of orders from India for its Rafale fighter jet but with little movement from the Indian side. Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) tender is already facing considerable delays due to which recently France again pushed for repeat orders of another 36 aircraft from India.
idrw.org has been told that a few years back, India had agreed to place second orders for 36 jets but now IAF is not keen on it and instead wants to procure another 114 jets under MRFA tender where Rafale will still lead but the tender itself is yet to take off due to complex Transfer of technology (ToT) clauses that are yet to be framed causing delays in the issue of request for proposal (RFP).
Dassault Aviation Stalls Indian expansion plans
Dassault Aviation awaits the Indian decision to procure a higher stake in the ownership of the Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL) facility at Nagpur, which will be used for assembling Rafale jets in India but the lack of any movement has delayed this.
DRAL will continue to manufacture some of the components and panels for the Rafale fighter jets as part of its global supply chain but won’t be made as a second production line out of France until India places firm orders for the jet.
Dassault Aviation plans to argument its production facility in France to cater to recent orders that the company has managed to secure from other operators in recent years.
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