Rafale jets lined up on the flight deck of French carrier Charles de Gaulle.
| Photo Credit: Dinakar Peri
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approved the deal for 26 Rafale Marine fighter jets from France for the Indian Navy worth over $7bn, official sources confirmed on Wednesday (April 9, 2025). This includes 22 single seater jets that can operate off aircraft carriers and four twin seater trainers that aren’t carrier compatible.
The CCS approval, for the Government to Government deal, is the final step and now awaits formal conclusion which is expected to be inked when the French Defence Minister visits India likely later this month. This approval leaves another mega deal with France for three more Scorpene-class conventional submarines awaiting CCS approval before it can be concluded.
As reported by The Hindu earlier, deliveries of the Rafale-M, meant to operate from the two aircraft carriers of the Indian Navy, would begin in four years once the contract is signed. The Indian Air Force already operate 36 Rafale jets acquired under a ₹60,000 Crore deal signed in September 2016.
The Indian Navy got to see the performance of the Rafale-M jets onboard the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle during bilateral Varuna exercise Varuna last month.
In pictures | Might over the sea
Unlike the Rafale deal which is an Inter-Governmental Agreement, the deal for Scorpene submarines is a follow-on to the earlier deal for six submarines procured under Project-75 is between Naval Group of France and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), the Mumbai based Defence public sector undertaking.
On July 13, 2023 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was enroute to Paris the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for the procurement of 26 Rafale-M fighters and three additional Scorpene-class diesel-electric submarines.
The Rafale-M jets are meant to fill the gap in numbers till the under development indigenous Twin Engine Deck-Based Fighter (TEDBF) is inducted into service.
The Navy currently operates two aircraft carriers – INS Vikramaditya procured from Russia and the indigenously built INS Vikrant which was commissioned in September 2022.
Published – April 09, 2025 02:14 pm IST