New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) has finalised the request for proposal (RFP) for 114 Rafale fighter jets, ahead of its chief’s and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visits to France next month, ThePrint has learnt.
Under the plan, 22 Rafales will be procured from France in fly-away condition. The remaining 92 will be manufactured in India, through a partnership between France’s Dassault Aviation and an Indian private sector company. This will be the biggest fighter jet procurement programme in the world.
Sources in India’s defence and security establishment said the RFP was in the final stages of bureaucratic processing and was expected to be issued shortly. Once issued, the French side will submit its bid. India’s defence ministry will then constitute price negotiation and contract negotiation committees to advance the process.
The development comes ahead of IAF’s Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh’s visit to France early next month. Modi’s trip is scheduled for later in June, during which an overarching government-to-government framework for the mega fighter deal will likely be announced. However, the final contract is expected to be signed only later this fiscal year.
According to sources, the 22 Rafale aircraft to be acquired off the shelf will also include trainer variants. When the project fructifies, India will become the first country outside France to manufacture the Rafale fighter aircraft. It will be a major milestone in New Delhi’s push to build a domestic aerospace manufacturing ecosystem outside the traditional public sector.
Sources said the Indian firms in contention include Tata Advanced Systems Limited, Mahindra, and the Adani Group.
Interestingly, personnel from some Indian companies are already undergoing training with Dassault Aviation in France for outsourcing work earmarked under the programme. Sources said Indian companies would first undergo an audit by the government, following which they would be issued licences for fighter aircraft manufacturing. At least two Indian firms are expected to receive the licence, after which Dassault will negotiate to choose its eventual production partner.
Sources clarified that the manufacturing licence for fighter aircraft was distinct from existing transport aircraft production approvals. Tata, for instance, already holds a licence for manufacturing the C-295 transport aircraft in India. The existing Dassault-Reliance venture only has approvals linked to the Falcon business jet programme. It is expected that Dassault and its Indian partner will eventually form a joint venture for Rafale manufacturing in India.
On the location of the final assembly line, sources said multiple options, including Nagpur, were being considered. In Nagpur, Dassault already has a facility. Hyderabad is also increasingly emerging as a major aerospace manufacturing hub. The government, sources said, wanted aerospace manufacturing capabilities to be geographically distributed, instead of remaining concentrated in a single region.
On indigenisation, sources said, the long-term aim was to achieve 55-60 percent localisation in phases of the Rafale production timeline. They explained that such levels cannot be achieved immediately since India would first need to build the broader supplier and manufacturing ecosystem required for fighter production.
Sources said the French proposed a timeline for indigenisation which the Indian side wanted shortened, with a bigger number of aircraft having higher indigenous content. Dassault tied up with Tata Advanced Systems last year to manufacture Rafale fuselage sections in India. Under the partnership, Tata Advanced Systems is setting up a production facility in Hyderabad to manufacture the Rafale’s key structural sections, including the lateral shells of the rear fuselage, the complete rear section, the central fuselage, and the front section. The first fuselage sections are ready to roll off the assembly line in FY2028. The facility is eventually expected to deliver up to two complete fuselages per month.
On technology transfer and source codes, sources clarified that the IAF has not sought complete access to the Rafale’s mission source code architecture. Instead, the focus has been on ensuring sufficient flexibility to integrate indigenous Indian weapons and systems onto the platform.
Sources also said the existing Rafale fleet with the IAF would be upgraded from the current F3 standard to the newer F4 configuration as part of the deal. The F4 standard depends on enhanced connectivity, improved data sharing, upgraded communications systems, software-defined radios, and network-centric warfare capabilities. At the same time, it serves as a bridge to the future Future Combat Air System (FCAS) architecture being developed by France and its European partners.
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