"India & France signed the deal for 36 Rafale jets. Rafale will significantly improve India's strike & defence capabilities" thus posted defence minister Manohar Parrikar on 23/09/16(Friday) in Facebook
What makes this single largest deal in Indian defence important to world's fourth largest airforce with a strength of more than 1,500 aircraft are many.
Dassault Rafale namely Rafel aircraft is built by Dassault a french aviation firm which has a very great history since first world war, and has delivered more than 8000 aircraft since 1945 in which 71% of them are business jets
India's bid to buy Rafel aircraft started long back when India decided to allocate 55,000 crores for 126 MMRCA( Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) back in 2010, based on which more than 2 years of evaluation by IAF happened . On 31st January 2012, it was announced that Dassault Rafale won the tender. Major things that made Dassault get this deal in spite of 6 strong contenders are.The IAF had around 600 technical specifications out of which around 590 were met by the Rafale . Fighters from the USA, the F16 Super Viper and F18 Super Hornet are outdated. Sweden's Gripen is single engined jet so it is at a disadvantage too. Getting MiG 35 means putting too much dependence on only one country Russia.
Snecma M88is afterburner turbofan engine specially built for Rafel aircraft which made the aircraft have good maintainability,upgrade potential (73 kN to 105 kN using the same core(kN:kilonewton) ),high thrust to weight ratio, low fuel consumption in all flight regimes, and a long engine life.
When we started to look in another side of the deal France’s desperation is understandable. Absent the India deal, the Rafale production line will close down, the future of its aerospace sector will dim, and the entire edifice of French industrial R&D sector based on small and medium-sized firms—a version of the enormously successful German “Mittelstand” model—engaged in producing cutting-edge technologies could unravel, and grease France’s slide to second-rate technology power-status
Snecma M88is afterburner turbofan engine specially built for Rafel aircraft which made the aircraft have good maintainability,upgrade potential (73 kN to 105 kN using the same core(kN:kilonewton) ),high thrust to weight ratio, low fuel consumption in all flight regimes, and a long engine life.
Qatar air force and Egyptian airforce are some of the users of Rafael aircraft.
The major thing that strikes our mind is when the deal was to get 126 aircraft for 55,000 crores why did Indian Mod has restricted to signing a deal for 36 aircraft and a subclause to buy 18 more in future with a price tag of Rs 1,600 crore per aircraft which is more than double of the decided cost.
If not for Rafel India's choice is to buy more su-30 aircraft which is double the time cheap than Rafel,but keeps breaking and cost a lot in maintenance and spare parts too and being readily available,or to buy indigenous aircraft which has a short range and cannot compete with high range aircraft like Rafel. India's Indigenous aircraft Tejas is IAF primary layer of defence is light combat aircraft and not medium combat aircraft.
Highly expensive 1,600 aircraft contract include elements that were not there in the 126 fighter MMRCA tender -- including a superior weapons package with Meteor missiles; and performance-based logistics, which bind Dassault to ensure that a stipulated percentage of the Rafale fleet remains combat-ready at all times. The percentage is guessed to be about 75 to 80%, an unchallenging target for Western fighter types
When we started to look in another side of the deal France’s desperation is understandable. Absent the India deal, the Rafale production line will close down, the future of its aerospace sector will dim, and the entire edifice of French industrial R&D sector based on small and medium-sized firms—a version of the enormously successful German “Mittelstand” model—engaged in producing cutting-edge technologies could unravel, and grease France’s slide to second-rate technology power-status
Indian parliamentary panel last December reported that India's fighter strength is down to 25 squadrons with the requirement of 45 squadrons,India also has few of its early Mig aircraft retiring at early months of 2017, and out of the 25 squadrons 14 are equipped with Russian-made mig-21 and mig-27
Considering all these things Rafel being delivered to IAF in 36 months from now in on-ready condition with entire support and logistics will help boost IAF power but is 36 high-cost aircraft and 18 other aircraft that may be bought by India's MOD in future will be enough for rising India's IAF power is still questionable,one thing is sure that we will have a better hand when compared to our neighbours in presence of Rafel.
Akshayaram Viswanathan
Jai hind
Considering all these things Rafel being delivered to IAF in 36 months from now in on-ready condition with entire support and logistics will help boost IAF power but is 36 high-cost aircraft and 18 other aircraft that may be bought by India's MOD in future will be enough for rising India's IAF power is still questionable,one thing is sure that we will have a better hand when compared to our neighbours in presence of Rafel.
Akshayaram Viswanathan
Jai hind
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