France offers to Indian Air Force for purchasing 40 Rafale fighters
Sounds like the French are really desperate to sell the Rafael overseas. If we are smart than we could feed on this opportunity and force them to reduce the price. Increase the number to 200 (which would have any ways happened post signing) and let them build 40-50 of those birds us. Thats what they want since the beginning, they have a production line but no orders hence the promise of quick deliveries and crap. We could benefit from this as we will get a very good bird, cheaper than expected in short span of time.A French company offered to sell 40 of its state-of-the-art aircraft Rafale fighter jets to India for a bi-lateral air exercise on Friday. An Indo-French joint exercise is to be held somewhere in India in 2011 – 12. The offer was made by the maker of the Rafale and Mirage fighters, Charles Edelstennie, who is also the scion of the Dassult family. Dessult is a multi-billion French military and civil aerospace company.
The chairman and chief executive of Dassult said, “We know the Indian Air Force, with which we have a decade-long close association, is facing force depletion. So we are ready to supply 40 Rafales, the world’s first omni-role fighters to India, in a short span of time.”
The officers of French Air Force discussed the idea with the Indian Air Force team, which is now in France for a tri-lateral air exercise in which the Singapore air force is also involved. According to Edelastennie, Rafale fighters could be an interim sale to India to acquire 126 Multi Role Combat Aircraft at cost of Rs 40,000 crore. He said, “It is fulfilling the needs and tasks of the French air force and navy globally.