Dassault Rafale in Indian Air Force

[Azaad]

@3:06 "Both sides have discussed MRFA at multiple levels and an understanding has been reached"... it means only cost negotiations remain... the framework is complete.

Yes but this guy has been committing innumerable gaffes off late including standing up for buxom babe Swasti's hot takes further tarnishing his own reputation which in turn has gotten him plenty of brickbats from Indian defence twitter.

Besides he was the one who declared S 80 the victor of the Project 75 I tender. So it's not as if he's an impeccable source of unimpeachable integrity.

 

[FalconSlayers]

Yes but this guy has been committing innumerable gaffes off late including standing up for buxom babe Swasti's hot takes further tarnishing his own reputation which in turn has gotten him plenty of brickbats from Indian defence twitter.

Besides he was the one who declared S 80 the victor of the Project 75 I tender. So it's not as if he's an impeccable source of unimpeachable integrity.

She and him have one thing in common, the company they work for. He will obviously defend those delusional coalpostings.


Other than that he's highly credible defence journo.

 

[abingdonboy]

View: https://youtu.be/F4SP45G1Ek0?si=5MFf0kSPCVLQix6A

HUGE development if true !!

Snehesh Alex Philip Chettan claiming GoI / MoD will be initiating talks with Dassault for procurement of 114 nos Rafales thru local mfg & inducting an initial batch thru imports from Dassault Merignac , in what's purportedly a single vendor situation.

No other sources are confirming or denying the story till date but then again the story's just broke. Will wait for Steno Shishir & others close to the establishment for confirmation / their version.

Have to wait for ANI to report this- if they do then it’s all but confirmed but this is definitely noteworthy, for years it has been reported MRFA would only move forward as an open tender, yet it never actually did- was this 4ad chess all along? (I know that’s too much credit to babus)

But after the IAF made his comments+ the ‘confidential’ report submitted to MoD+ IAF’s comments that they need 30-40 jets/year the groundwork has been laid for this since the start of 2025

IF true

1) have said for almost a decade Rafale is the only game in town (ISE wasn’t justified otherwise)
2) this step should’ve been done at least 5 years ago
3) they had better get this deal done within the next 18 months so the first Rafales can come for this order this side of 2030
4) india will have almost as many Rafales as France after all is said and done =36+26+114+ follow ons so Dassualt had better not play games and let India integrate whatever indigenous system/weapon they ask for on it for a reasonable price (apparently they dropped Astra integration on the Rafale-Ms due to quoted costs)

SURELY this is India going all in on France and leaves Safran as the JV partner for the AMCA engine as a certainty otherwise incomprehensible dependency

+ I wonder if they’ll be able to tie in A330 MRTTs to this package, G2G deals give a lot more latitude for such things and in the next few months the IAF will be leasing an A330 MRTT from the French air force

++ I wonder who the Indian partner would be as I believe Dassualt bought out RIL so their MRO in Nagpur (DRAL) is now 100% Dassualt owned, this would be the deal of the century for the Indian partner and will likely create India’s private sector rival to HAL, I hope it would be TASL personally as it’ll tie together their aerospace investments very nicely (C295, Air India+ MRO, strategic systems)

 

[BON PLAN]

Thank you. What level of credibility could you give to this journalist/media ? The Print is one of the most important main media in your country if I'm not wrong.

Difficult to say if it is serious.
But Rafale, as already inducted in IAF (and in a near future in IN) to the whole IAF satisfaction has clearly the edge, specially now that Trump definitively put a nail in the F35 ass because USA will never be a reliable partner (you purchase a jet for 40 years ! It's not to expect your supplier to halt to give you the spares or upgrades after 5 years)

Remain the price and the ToT.

Price will be hard bargained by India, as usual. But Dassault know that and how to deal with.
ToT : I think France is probably the best partner to do so, because India is a trustable partner as seen by Paris(I remember à old story about China wanted to purchase M2000.... but only 2 units = One for tests and one to copy and paste), and because Dassault is already involved in the next gen jet, so easier to give you the keys of a mature product.

As always, the keys are mainly in the indian hands. We just have to expect indian top brass to not take 15 years to decide.