What is Rafale Deal ? A complete analysis.

Highlights

• In all, 36 Rafale fighter jets will be delivered to India by April 2022.
• The first Rafale fighter jet will be delivered to India in fly-away condition in September 2019.
• Out of the 36 fighter jets to be delivered, 8 are twin seater and 28 are single-seater aircrafts.
• RB 008 is one of the 8 twin-seater aircrafts in the RB series to be delivered to India.
• The other 28 fighter jets under the BS series from BS001 to BS028 are single-seaters (named after IAF chief BS Dhanoa).

Naming

• The Tail Number is given by the Operations Branch of the IAF and then the series are allotted by the Maintenance Branch. There is no fixed parameter for tail numbers.

Background

• In the backdrop of declining fleet strength of Indian Air Force during 2000-2012 (34 against the sanctioned strength of 42 squadrons), India mooted a global tender for acquisition of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft in 2007.
• Subsequently, in 2012 Dassault Aviation’s Rafale fighter aircraft won the bid as the lowest bidder.
• Under the proposal, 18 aircrafts were to be produced and delivered in fly-away condition to India and the rest 108 aircrafts were to be manufactured in India.
• However the deal remained incomplete due to following issues
• Transfer of Technology.
• Dassault Aviation was not willing to take the responsibility of quality control of production of 108 aircraft in India.
• Further, the HAL’s estimate of production cost was 3 times higher than the actual production cost.
• In 2016, India and France signed a €7.87 billion government-to-government deal according to which the Government of India would acquire 36 Rafale jets in fly-away condition.
  • Offset Clause: As a part of Technology Transfer agreement the supplier i.e. Dassault Aviation will invest 50% of the contract value back into India. 

Importance of the deal

• Currently the combat fleet of the Indian Air Force is depleting with 34 squadrons as against the sanctioned 42 squadrons.
• Further, the present combat fleet consists of the obsolete MiG-21M and MiG-27ML combat aircrafts that are slated to retire by 2021-22.
• Further, the mainstay of IAF’s fighter squadron (272 Sukhoi fighter jets) has only 50 per cent serviceability due to technical and spare parts issues with Russia.
• Tejas Mark-II light combat aircraft indigenously developed in India is facing delays.

About Rafale

• Rafale is a twin-engine medium multi-role combat aircraft, manufactured by French company Dassault Aviation.
• It can carry weapons more than 9 tonnes including air-air, air-ground and air-ship missiles.
• Rafale can carry out a wide range of missions including Air-defence/air-superiority, Reconnaissance, close air support dynamic targeting, Air-to-ground precision strike/interdiction, anti-ship attacks, and nuclear deterrence, buddy-buddy refueling.
• Rafale can carry out both air-to-ground, as well as air-to-air attacks and interceptions during the same sortie.
• It has a maximum speed of 1.9 mach.
• It has a range of more than 3700 km vs 400-550 of Su 30 
• Further as a part of the deal India will also acquire SCALP and METEOR missiles.
• SCALP: a precision long range ground attack missile that can take out targets with extreme accuracy. Has a range of 300 km, capped by the missile technology control regime. 
• METEOR: a beyond visual range air to air missile that is possibly the best in its class. Can take out enemy aircraft at range of over 100 km.