India’s Defence Acquisition Council has finalised a proposal worth roughly ₹3.25 lakh crore ($39 billion) to procure 114 Rafale multi-role fighter aircraft from France’s Dassault Aviation, closing out a Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft tender that has run, in various forms, since 2007. The decision goes next to the Cabinet Committee on Security, which is expected to approve it before parliament breaks for the monsoon.
The package follows the 2016 acquisition of 36 Rafales in fly-away condition, which now equip two squadrons of the Indian Air Force. Under the new contract, deliveries will be split between French-built aircraft and units assembled in India under a transfer-of-technology arrangement that includes the Tata Advanced Systems campus at Nagpur and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited facilities at Nashik.
Defence officials said the deal includes a 60-percent offset component covering avionics, engine maintenance, and weapons integration, with about 30 percent of total contract value flowing to Indian small and medium enterprises. The first squadron of Indian-built Rafales is expected to enter service in 2030, with the full 114 aircraft delivered over 60 months from contract signature.
For the Indian Air Force, which currently operates a fleet of just over 30 active squadrons against an authorised strength of 42, the order is the largest single combat-aircraft procurement in three decades. The Rafales will gradually replace ageing Mirage 2000 and MiG-29 squadrons, freeing the indigenous Tejas Mk1A and Mk2 programmes to backfill MiG-21 and Jaguar retirements.
The choice of the Rafale came after the F-15EX (Boeing) and Eurofighter Typhoon both progressed through earlier evaluation stages. The defence ministry said the Rafale’s prior service experience inside the IAF and the lower integration risk attached to a second buy were decisive. The Eurofighter consortium has not yet commented; Boeing said it would “continue to support India’s broader fighter modernisation.”
France’s ambassador to India, Thierry Mathou, called the agreement a “strategic milestone” and said President Emmanuel Macron would travel to Delhi later this year to formally mark it. President Droupadi Murmu is expected to receive Macron in early September.
The opposition Congress party, which fought sustained domestic battles over the 2016 Rafale purchase, said on Tuesday it would “study the procurement structure carefully” but stopped well short of suggesting it would oppose the deal. Defence minister Rajnath Singh told reporters the agreement “closed a long chapter” and called the offset component “the most ambitious yet attached to a foreign defence order.”