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French companies Thales and Dassault Aviation have signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence to upgrade the Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft.
The order to upgrade the 50 aircraft in the Air Force is valued at around $2 billion. The upgraded aircraft are expected to serve another 20-25 years.
“Based on the integration of latest generation equipment and systems, the upgrade will further enhance the technical-operational capabilities of the Indian Air Force's Mirage 2000,” said Dassault in a statement on Friday.
The proposal to upgrade the Mirage 2000s was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security on July 13.
According to the deal, the French companies will have to invest 30 per cent of the deal value back into the Indian defence sector as offsets.
The Government policy mandates foreign vendors bagging deals over Rs 300 crore to invest at least 30 per cent of the deal back into the Indian defence, civil aerospace and homeland security sectors.
“The extensive involvement of Indian industry within the programme will consolidate existing ties with the French aerospace industry and will reinforce long-term cooperation based on cutting-edge technologies and the sharing of technical know-how and expertise,” the French companies said in their statement.
It is expected that first two aircraft will be sent to France for upgrade and the rest would be upgraded at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
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