India has decided to buy only 36 Rafale fighter jets scrapping the earlier plan to acquire 126 of the French aircraft on grounds of huge cost.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said that that the previous UPA government’s deal for 126 Rafales was too expensive and it would have hampered other modernisation plans of the Indian military. Parrikar termed the deal “economically unviable”. He added, the deal would have required around Rs 1.3 lakh crore over a period of 10-11 years. Defence Minister said, it was not required.
During his visit to France last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision to buy 36 of the Rafale jets. Parrikar underlined that the decision to acquire the 36 French jets came in view of the “urgent requirement” of Indian Air Force.
Rejecting criticism from the Congress that the Prime Minister had by-passed the Finance Ministry and the Defence Acquisition Council, the apex body of the Defence Ministry that takes the call on military projects, Parrikar said ” the deal is yet to be inked” and they should hold their horse still the process was complete. He expressed confidence that the Committee, that has been set up to work out the contract, would complete the task in the next 2-3 months.