Dassault Aviation is looking at a hefty order for the twin-engine Rafale fighter jets, which will enable it to do sustained business in the country under the ‘Make in India’ programme with full technology transfer.

The company is also eyeing the Indian Navy’s offer to procure 57 carrier-based war planes.

“For the time being the order is for 36. It is a good number to start. But it is not a good number for the final idea to manufacture Rafale in India. We are really working now to set up facilities in India for some other activities,” said Eric Trappier, Chairman and CEO, Dassault Aviation, on the sidelines of Aero India.

India’s plans

India had announced in September 2016 that it would buy 36 Rafale jets off-the-shelf for a whopping ₹58,000 crore for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Subsequently, Dassault Aviation signed a joint venture pact with the Anil Ambani’s Reliance Aerostructure to execute the offset obligtions worth ₹50,000 crore. The JV will be named as ‘Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd’ (DRAL) and the plant is expected to come up in Maharashtra. However, there was no arrangement for transfer of technology (ToT) as the planes are being acquired in fly-away condition. For ToT to take place, the company is looking at a far bulkier order from the Ministry of Defence, Trappier said.

“The 36 deliveries will be done by 2022. But if we may get orders to continue these deliveries after 2022 then we can anticipate the production, and start now. But in order to learn the depths of the transfer we need to know how many aircrafts. So it’s a matter of 2017-18. We have to see how many will they order,” Trappier said.

He said while the first aircraft will be delivered in 2019, the last one will arrive here in 2022. Dassault Aviation is also looking to expand its offset obligations by linking the JV with its other key partners such as Thales, Safran and MBDA among others who jointly work on Rafale.

“This offset arrangement will be for the Rafale contract as well as for all other programmes of Dassault. We do not yet know how much of the offset will be executed because we are discussing with companies how we will share the work among the JV and other companies is really what we working now,” Trappier told BusinessLine .

Trappier added that the €4.20 billion firm is also eyeing the Indian Navy’s plan to acquire 57 carrier-based warplanes, for which other defence giants like Boeing are also gearing up with its offer of F/A-18 Super Hornet jets.

Competitor

“Our only competitor are the Americans with the F-18s but they are only for the Navy for the US Airforce. I think we have a real capability to fit the new requirement of the Indian Navy for the future with the Rafale and with the Indian Air Force with same logistics, same maintenance, same support as far as industry is concerned,” he added. Meanwhile, the company plans to start training Indian Air Force pilots and Indian technicians on the Rafale from 2018.

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