India signs €7.9bn deal to buy 36 fighter planes from France

India has signed a €7.9 billion deal with France in New Delhi for 36 Dassault Rafale fighters to boost its declining combat squadrons.

The inter-governmental agreement was signed by India's defence minister Manohar Parrikar and his visiting French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, 17 months after prime minister Narendra Modi announced the fighter procurement in Paris in April 2015.

Delivery of the fighters – armed with advanced beyond visual-range missiles like the Meteor and Scalp/Storm Shadow, with ranges varying between 150-300km – is to begin in late 2019, and be completed within 66 months, defence officials said.

Ministry of defence and Indian air force (IAF) officials claim to have beaten down the French by €750 million on the overall fighter contract price, negotiations for which began seriously in January after French president Francois Hollande’s Delhi trip.

The agreement, which includes the option of buying 18 additional Rafales, also incorporates a 50 per cent offset clause, under which Rafale manufacturers Dassault will invest half the contract value in India’s domestic defence industry.

Senior air force officers said the Rafales were “hard wired” to be enable them to carry strategic nuclear weapons, a capability that influenced the decision to import them, despite their high price of about €219 million each.

“The Rafale procurement is long overdue and will augment the IAF’s reduced fighter squadron strength,” said military analyst Air Marshal V K Bhatia (retired).

The Rafale, he added, is one of the world’s best fighters and will significantly augment the IAF’s war waging capabilities.

In recent years the IAF’s combat squadron numbers had declined to 32 squadrons, from a sanctioned strength of 42, and by 2022 this is expected to further reduce to 25 squadrons, as ageing Soviet-era combat aircraft retire.

The IAF had warned successive governments about a major operational gap opening up with nuclear rivals China and Pakistan without advanced fighters and had been lobbying hard for the Rafales.

But some senior IAF officers argue that acquiring the hugely expensive Rafale fighters in limited numbers would only add to the IAF’s financial woes, as the aircraft require costly maintenance.

IAF logisticians, already overstretched in supporting six different fighter types – the largest number for any major air force across the world – are wary of a seventh combat platform entering service.

Analysts also warned that by inducting such an advanced air platform, India would trigger an arms race with Pakistan and China, both of who have territorial disputes with it.

China has close military co-operation with nuclear ally Pakistan and several of its fighter aircraft are licence-built by Islamabad. The introduction of Rafales is expected to heighten tensions in an already militarised region.