French President Emmanuel Macron recently said that France and India are moving into a new phase of defence cooperation with plans to jointly co-produce Rafale fighter jets as well as helicopters and also hope to sell more submarines to India.
After his three-day visit to India, Macron told reporters that India’s anticipated order for another 114 Rafales is a “new step forward” in defence ties between the two countries and France hopes to see this replicated with submarines as well.
“On Rafale, what we want to do is expand. India confirmed a few days ago its willingness to command a new bunch of Rafales… 114… and to co-produce in India,” Macron said.
Last week, the Defence Acquisition Council of India’s defence ministry gave initial clearance to acquire 114 more Rafale jets for the air force, besides other planes and missiles, months after the worst escalation in decades between India and Pakistan.
India has purchased 36 Rafales so far for its air force and ordered another 26 marine versions of the jet for the navy.
While details of the Rafale deal including plans for co-production, expected to be sealed after technical and commercial negotiations, are yet to be made public, reports suggest that the 114 jets manufactured by Dassault Aviation are expected to cost 3.25 trillion rupees ($35.65 billion).
Reports also suggest that up to 90 of the 114 jets could be produced in India with a joint venture partner who is yet to be identified. “Rafale is absolutely key,” Macron said. “I hope we will do it on submarines. We offered additional capacities.”
On Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of the first H125 helicopter assembly line in India through a joint venture between Airbus and Tata Advanced Systems, along with plans for the joint production of HAMMER missiles in India by Safran and the state-owned Bharat Electronics.
