"I have told President Hollande that India wants the jets as soon as possible," PM Modi said.
According to the joint statement, "The two leaders agreed to conclude an Inter-Governmental Agreement for supply of the aircraft on terms that would be better than conveyed by Dassault Aviation as part of a separate process underway; the delivery would be in time-frame that would be compatible with the operational requirement of IAF; and that the aircraft and associated systems and and weapons would be delivered on the same configuration as had been tested and approved by Indian Air Force, and with a longer maintenance responsibility by France."
"I asked the President to supply us with 36 Rafale jet fighter planes, the ready-to-fly models," the Prime Minister said at a joint news conference.
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced that India has requested France to give 36 Rafale fighter jets in 'fly-away condition' as quickly as possible.
"I'm grateful to France for their support for India's permanent membership of UN Security Council," PM Modi said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 881094.cmsIndia is ordering the 36 off-the shelf Rafale fighters to speed up the purchase and immediately give the air force two squardons of the jets that it desperately needs to upgrade its ageing fleet, sources said.
Well, this is like all the additional Su-30 orders before the main tranche itself.
I wish the IAF behaves the same with the LCA with advance orders ...err no, that has to go through some more rounds of trials before IAF ponders on the proposal.