India’s Defence Procurement Board on Friday cleared the proposal to acquire 114 additional Rafale fighter jets, marking one of the country’s largest-ever fighter aircraft deals.
The proposal will now be placed before the Defence Acquisition Council and, thereafter, sent to the Cabinet Committee on Security for final approval.
The clearance follows detailed deliberations within the Ministry of Defence on a proposal to move ahead with a deal estimated at around Rs 3.25 lakh crore with France, as reported earlier by ANI.
According to the news agency, the source codes for the aircraft are set to remain with the French side.
Under the proposed plan, the majority of the aircraft will be manufactured in India, with indigenous components accounting for approximately 30 per cent of the overall content, providing a significant boost to domestic defence manufacturing.
Defence sources told ANI that 12–18 aircraft are expected to be acquired in fly-away condition to meet the Indian Air Force’s immediate operational requirements.
The proposal was discussed at a high-level meeting within the Defence Ministry. The move comes as the Indian Air Force has been seeking the large-scale induction of modern combat aircraft under a government-to-government framework.
In June last year, Tata Advanced Systems Limited signed agreements with Dassault Aviation to manufacture Rafale fuselage sections in India.
Meanwhile, according to an Economic Times report, parallel initiatives — including a jet engine production facility in Hyderabad and a maintenance, repair and overhaul hub in Jewar, Uttar Pradesh — could eventually raise indigenous content in Rafale programmes to as much as 60 per cent.
If cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security, the proposal would become India’s biggest-ever defence acquisition and increase the country’s total Rafale fleet to 176 aircraft. The Indian Air Force currently operates 36 Rafale jets, while the Indian Navy placed orders for 26 naval variants last year.
While the indigenous content in the proposed Rafale jets is currently estimated at around 30 per cent — lower than the usual 50–60 per cent requirement under the Make in India framework — officials said the figure is expected to rise as production progresses. They added that indigenous content in the India-manufactured Rafale aircraft could eventually exceed 60 per cent.
The decision to advance the proposal follows reports on the Rafale’s performance during Operation Sindoor, during which the aircraft is said to have successfully countered Chinese PL-15 air-to-air missiles using its Spectra electronic warfare suite.
The French side is also planning to establish a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in Hyderabad for the M-88 engines that power the Rafale fleet.
Dassault Aviation has already set up an entity in India to support the maintenance of French-origin fighter aircraft, and Indian aerospace companies, including Tata, are expected to play a role in manufacturing activities.
The Indian Air Force has been seeking the rapid induction of fighter aircraft to address emerging regional security challenges. Its future combat fleet is expected to be centred on the Su-30 MKI, Rafale and indigenous fighter programmes.
India has already placed orders for 180 Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mark 1A jets and plans to induct an indigenous fifth-generation fighter aircraft in significant numbers beyond 2035.
