Rafale DH/EH of Indian Air Force : News and Discussions

Fair points. However, who knows what the French will decide to do. They dragged their feet on the integration of Spice 2000 (and likely the Litening LDP) on the IAF Rafale to make way for their Hammer + Talios combo.
If they play hanky panky which I fully expect them too , they lose the Indian market like Naval Group has & the Russians did earlier.

And in face of events like a downturn in economy which I foresee will be permanent in the time to come for France & the rest of the EU & the expected collapse of the FCAS partnership , they'd be needing partners with deep pockets . In the coming 2-3 decades where do you see such countries ?
Plus their weapons are niche in that they are produced in much smaller quantities compared to say, the Americans (JSOW or JASSMs). This makes them very expensive.
No clue if there are plans to get them to set up mfg facilities here. It's not inconceivable though as part of the offsets or otherwise.
So much so that when it came time to use them the IAF chose not to ( French-origin Matra BGL LGB in Kargil). They bought Israeli bombs instead.
In time to come the import bill is going to drastically reduce . Whatever is to happen vis a vis imports will likely happen in the next 5-10 years.

Beyond that it's likely JVs in cases like 6th or 7th Gen FA with outright purchase being the last option or certain niche technologies which we may get by paying hefty amounts for ToT (?) or outright purchase like FA propulsion systems for 6th Gen FA & beyond etc
 
lol we are now relying on UV rays and icy winds to counter stealth. thats stupid. they have more than enough money for hardend climate controlled shelters. This is not russia.

Underestimating the J20 is foolish and we would pay a very bad price if we do so.

Better SAMS and a well networked defence with a abundance of radars etc is the Only way we have a hope rn. Thankfully theyre doing a decent job here but we need significantly more. Hopefully as the economy grows we invest more and more into R&D and the private sector starts investing earnestly into R&D intead of screwdrivergiri.

China has been heavily fortiying their side of the mountain. Its not going to be a land war lmao. Theyre not that stupid. If we do have a conflict it will be an air and missile war. Theyre not going to invade us we have enough tech to stop that from happening or at least make it so stupendously costly that theyre alr ageing population will go through furthur damage.

War with india is Not going to be over territory its will be over dominance and keeping India bogged down. Will it work? No. Our babus and leaders only seem to get serious and thrive when the country is literally at stake. We have seen this time and time again. It will still be extremely costly for US and with how much india is growing it will simply create a threat who has extreme hatred and who is big enough to really *censored* with them if not now but in the future.

You're neglecting the role of IA here. If the war happens, IAF will be our defender while IA will be the surprise for CCP forces.

The constraint, more than technology, it's the difference in sheer scale of production capacity. In coming decades, once this gap starts closing, that will bolster our forces more.

While quality matters, but in war.. sometimes quantity takes the cake. Look at USA.. they have superior technology, very very advanced systems, niche, top of the chain.. but they are costly, specialised and in limited numbers. Hence, as of now, USA finds itself in uncharted territory vis a vis China. But it's tech is what makes China still at second position.

India need not copy-paste either of them. We have our own reality. We need our own military-industry doctrine.

What we need now is R&D for military standard tickling down to have better capability for domestic police forces. Central+State. Spread the costs, make it viable for production for our capital hungry industry. That will mean adopting the system of system approach, as opposed to now, where Forces just give them a specific parameter, system or SQRs of their foreign counterpart.

Delink forces and DRDO. De-link DRDO and DPSUs etc. Let Forces converse with industry directly. Incentivize the Tier-1 manufacturers to use the outcomes of DRDO tech to envisioning integration of different tech, fine tuning them for what forces need.

And much more structural changes.
 
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If they play hanky panky which I fully expect them too , they lose the Indian market like Naval Group has & the Russians did earlier.
Part of the blame lies with us. Our CNC teams just don't tie up all the loose ends when drafting contracts which foreign OEMs take full advantage of.

No clue if there are plans to get them to set up mfg facilities here. It's not inconceivable though as part of the offsets or otherwise.
The allocation for weapons is quite sizeable if the figures recently for 114 Rafale are to be beleived.

But do you really expect the French to permit the integration of weapons like ASRAAM (MBDA product, no less) over MICA? I'd imagine we'd need a proper CCM for the Rafale at some point.

In time to come the import bill is going to drastically reduce . Whatever is to happen vis a vis imports will likely happen in the next 5-10 years.

The French media is quoting a figure of EUR 33bn for 114 Rafale. That's atleast 2X the $36bn figure doing the rounds here in India. 60% IC isn't gonna be cheap is all I can say.
 
or in USD -- India has approved the $39 billion purchase of 114 Dassault Rafale fighter jets,

The package is $340 million each, It doesn't sound right
Literally everybody is quoting different figures, some say $35 billion, some $36 billion, some $40 billion, some $27 billion.
Will have to wait for CCS clearance to know the actual figure.
 
Part of the blame lies with us. Our CNC teams just don't tie up all the loose ends when drafting contracts which foreign OEMs take full advantage of.
On the contrary the CNC team prepared such a watertight agreement with some impossible clauses as far as the MMRCA went that Dassault had no choice but to play dirty.

They agreed to all the clauses & once they were declared the winner of the contest reneged from agreeing to stand guarantee to HAL's workmanship & time taken to deliver each FA & there's nothing we could do as the next option was Eurofighter with 2/3 unreliable partners in UK & Germany. Sweden brought nothing to the table technology wise or in terms of geopolitical advantages.

We didn't want Russian & American FAs. The French read the situation well & executed their strategy beautifully . They realised it'd be a long haul & 14 years later have been proven right

Hopefully our BA Hons in English Literature babooos who're experts in everything from Rural Development to Water Management to promoting handicrafts, managing finances home & defence would have learned their lessons though we can't be sure of it for this is the Indian babooodumb we're talking about.
The allocation for weapons is quite sizeable if the figures recently for 114 Rafale are to be beleived.

But do you really expect the French to permit the integration of weapons like ASRAAM (MBDA product, no less) over MICA? I'd imagine we'd need a proper CCM for the Rafale at some point.
They will after a lot of hemming & hawing hiking the price for such integration randomly. Look the French realise this is their last best seller. With competition growing from Tier 2 & 3 powers viz India, RoK, China, Turkey etc & the balance of power shifting it's only a matter of time before they're outpriced in the market & outgunned politically.

Hence the objective is to milk the Rafale for all its worth which is exactly what they'd do .
The French media is quoting a figure of EUR 33bn for 114 Rafale. That's atleast 2X the $36bn figure doing the rounds here in India. 60% IC isn't gonna be cheap is all I can say.
?

1 Euro = ~ 1.2 USD. How can 36 billion USD be twice the figure of 33 billion Euros..
 
They agreed to all the clauses & once they were declared the winner of the contest reneged from agreeing to stand guarantee to HAL's workmanship & time taken to deliver each FA & there's nothing we could do as the next option was Eurofighter with 2/3 unreliable partners in UK & Germany.
That's moot because the 126 MMRCA deal as it was originally envisaged was never signed.

We bought 36 Rafale under a G2G agreement with offsets that were not fulfilled, ISE mods that were completed years after delivery. The ac had to be sent back to France to boot.

Look the French realise this is their last best seller. With competition growing from Tier 2 & 3 powers viz India, RoK, China, Turkey etc & the balance of power shifting it's only a matter of time before they're outpriced in the market & outgunned politically.
We deal with the French because their stuff comes with no strings attached. Not as much as the Americans atleast. Plus the Rafale is hardwired for N delivery roles unlike any other mmrca competitor.

They are still a P5 power with a strong industrial base and a veto at the UN.

Should a nationalist leader like Le Pen come to power, I think France will start to compete with Germany as Europe's leading power.
 
That's moot because the 126 MMRCA deal as it was originally envisaged was never signed.
Yes & the agreement wasn't signed because DA reneged from the T&C of the agreement.

Once again , I've written about this before but in tenders especially international tenders if there are deviations from the original agreement the bidder is expected to provide a list of exceptions at the time of bidding.

DA did no such thing. They played along & after they were declared the winner of the contest showed their true colours.
We bought 36 Rafale under a G2G agreement with offsets that were not fulfilled, ISE mods that were completed years after delivery. The ac had to be sent back to France to boot.
IIRC the terms of the agreement for those 36 nos Rafales were that the last one would come with ISE . Subsequently the rest of them were to flown to France & upgraded to ISE standards in batches though why exactly it took > 3 years to do so is inexplicable.


Chatter on SM is we ran out of finances leading to delays & consequently what we saw in Operation Sindoor. Then again who knows ? The truth likely won't come out before a decade has lapsed likely more.
We deal with the French because their stuff comes with no strings attached. Not as much as the Americans atleast. Plus the Rafale is hardwired for N delivery roles unlike any other mmrca competitor.
Le Francais are mercenaries. They will sell you anything for the right price & then some more , much more than the Russkies & the Jews.

That's one reality we've got to get used to as long as we're dependent on imports . The alternative is self righteous pricks like Germany or extremely untrustworthy partners if they can be called that like the Anglos & the Americans.
They are still a P5 power with a strong industrial base and a veto at the UN.

Should a nationalist leader like Le Pen come to power, I think France will start to compete with Germany as Europe's leading power.
They're a fading power like much of the major powers in Europe be it Germany or UK or Italy or Russia. Who replaces whom hardly matters ! Long term they're in terminal decline.

Check out for their parameters on TFR , the amount of Muslim migrants they've let in whether legal or illegal , their economy & finally their suicidal war against Russia.

Why should we be interrupting the enemy when they're making a mistake. And I use the word enemy in all my sense & sobriety . Europe is no friend of India especially the EU which if they're permitted to will act as the Mafia much like what the NATO in Europe has become.

This war in Ukraine couldn't have come at a better time.
 
Yes & the agreement wasn't signed because DA reneged from the T&C of the agreement.

Once again , I've written about this before but in tenders especially international tenders if there are deviations from the original agreement the bidder is expected to provide a list of exceptions at the time of bidding.

DA did no such thing. They played along & after they were declared the winner of the contest showed their true colours.

IIRC the terms of the agreement for those 36 nos Rafales were that the last one would come with ISE . Subsequently the rest of them were to flown to France & upgraded to ISE standards in batches though why exactly it took > 3 years to do so is inexplicable.


Chatter on SM is we ran out of finances leading to delays & consequently what we saw in Operation Sindoor. Then again who knows ? The truth likely won't come out before a decade has lapsed likely more.

Le Francais are mercenaries. They will sell you anything for the right price & then some more , much more than the Russkies & the Jews.

That's one reality we've got to get used to as long as we're dependent on imports . The alternative is self righteous pricks like Germany or extremely untrustworthy partners if they can be called that like the Anglos & the Americans.

They're a fading power like much of the major powers in Europe be it Germany or UK or Italy or Russia. Who replaces whom hardly matters ! Long term they're in terminal decline.

Check out for their parameters on TFR , the amount of Muslim migrants they've let in whether legal or illegal , their economy & finally their suicidal war against Russia.

Why should we be interrupting the enemy when they're making a mistake. And I use the word enemy in all my sense & sobriety . Europe is no friend of India especially the EU which if they're permitted to will act as the Mafia much like what the NATO in Europe has become.

This war in Ukraine couldn't have come at a better time.

THIS IS ABSOLUTE INSANITY

Päivi Räsänen, MP in Finland has been dragged through the courts for 6 YEARS because she tweeted a Bible verse

She was acquitted twice but prosecutors won't drop it

She was criminally prosecuted for tweeting a picture of a Bible verse (Romans 1) to the leadership of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, asking why they were sponsoring a Pride event

They actually tried to charge her under "War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity" laws. For a Bible verse

This is Europe btw.... Europe used to be a christian continent

Now they are criminalizing Christianity in the West. It's that simple

Not related to the topic of the thread in question but deeply related to Europe. And this isn't even isolated behaviour. This is standard behaviour in practically all of Europe especially Northern. Western & Central Europe.

They've completely hollowed out their own religion & haven't come up with a suitable replacement. To top it all they're now up against the most fanatical religion whom they've actually imported if you can believe such a thing.

At least in our case we were complacent or lackadaisical or both when we ignored repeated attempts to over run India from the beginning of the 8th century onwards which duly happened in the beginning of the 12th century. These phuckers actually did this to themselves.

At least East & South Europe aren't as suicidal especially given their history with the Turks. To top it all they've chosen the wrong enemy to go to war with at a time when their economy is in a spot with the war considerably worsening it .

And if all this wasn't bad enough they've imported hordes of the most rigid of Abrahamic faiths into their countries whose agenda has always been conquest & domination one way or another .

These guys are the last to assimilate. They'd do so when the dominant architecture of the state is Islam with the natives doing the assimilation.

One more thing Islam acquired it's militaristic nature after the Hijrat to Medina from Mecca where they were all peace loving & amiable.

Once they arrived in Medina the forceable conversions began along with the raising of armies to conquer. Hijrat means migration. That's what these Muslims have done in Europe.

I leave you to draw your own conclusions now .
 
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Yes & the agreement wasn't signed because DA reneged from the T&C of the agreement.

Once again , I've written about this before but in tenders especially international tenders if there are deviations from the original agreement the bidder is expected to provide a list of exceptions at the time of bidding.
The main reason was cost escalation, iirc. After all, this was the first time ever that the lifecycle costs were being taken into consideration. The situation is no different today.

IIRC the terms of the agreement for those 36 nos Rafales were that the last one would come with ISE . Subsequently the rest of them were to flown to France & upgraded to ISE standards in batches though why exactly it took > 3 years to do so is inexplicable
Imo, ISE upgrades could have been completed in India with kits (+ DA engineers) flown in from France. But apparently there was no provision in the contract for it. Anyways, hindsight as they say is always 20/20.
 
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PARIS, Feb 13 (Reuters) - French engine maker Safran (SAF.PA), opens new tab is ready to build an engine assembly line in India to meet the country's requirements for local production as the French and Indian governments discuss the purchase of 114 more Rafale jets, its CEO said on Friday.

Safran, which makes M-88 engines for the Dassault Aviation (AM.PA), opens new tab jet, will also buy parts from local suppliers to support India's aerospace industry, Olivier Andries told reporters.

 
Did you heard about an additional order for 31 Rafale for the Indian Navy ?
Which will complete the number initially wanted with 57 Rafale in total.

It cames from Michel Cabirol who is a real journalist from "la tribune", and already be in advance for giving us the deals. He was the one that first announced deals for Egypt, Qatar and lot of ongoing discussions. Don't know his sources, but here I'm well surprised, as for India there are a lot of rumors first comming from your country.

Here the link to the article : https://www.latribune.fr/article/la...e-a-la-france-de-lui-fournir-31-rafale-marine

(By the way, please don't talk about politics and religion in Europe. So much different country that manage politically and culturally this topics, you cannot just apply your thoughts with what happened in ONE country. Your clearly don't understand this topic, and it is completely off topic here. )
 
DA did no such thing. They played along & after they were declared the winner of the contest showed their true colours.
I don't know what are you talking about. I can tell you a story that come directly from one person who was personally present during the négociation in India.

During one meeting, the question about Dassault to take in charge the warranty of the aircraft built in France came. Indian counterpart ask how it will be setup according to the MMRCA contest.

It was a bluff, nothing has been planned in the contract regarding that point and one french guy took the entire contract in paper in his hands, give it to his Indian counter parts and said :"ok, show me in the contract where this is written because we didn't see it.".

It wasn't written. It was a bluff and this is how it worked.

I know you love tells that French are like this or that, but the reality is also that it is very hard to negotiate with India. There are many steps, all leads by people who has their own will and political agenda.

I know companies which initially refused to propose anything to India, because they know they might spend outrageous amount of time (so, and in money) to negotiate and then get lost in the acquisition procedures. For some, the french government pushed them. So the price they propose include and extra margin.

"French this, french that..." But don't forget that Rafale and other stuff are sold all over the world and french is the second arms dealer behind the US, despite the fact that they do not possess their geopolitical power and leverage.

So, at one moment, please, consider to look at yourself as well.

LIke for the previous off topic, you wrote a story telling based on assumptions, not fact. It's an opinion based on nothing. Like for the ISE.

why it took so long to apply the ISE? Don't know. There where payment issues from India. Also, a lot of hardware did not came from France. As a journalist, I will tell that we don't have enough facts to understand what happened and I will stay at this position. I won't build a story.
 
Fair points. However, who knows what the French will decide to do. They dragged their feet on the integration of Spice 2000 (and likely the Litening LDP) on the IAF Rafale to make way for their Hammer + Talios combo.
Are you sure ? Why french will dragg their feet with india to integrate other armaments ? Qatar has Sniper pod and it have been integrated fast, no issue with that. Why assuming that french drag their feet ?
Plus their weapons are niche in that they are produced in much smaller quantities compared to say, the Americans (JSOW or JASSMs). This makes them very expensive.
This could be true, but reality is much complex. You can compare, at one point, JSOW with Hammer, and JASSM with SCALP. Depending of the number you'll find, you'll see that we are in very close numbers. Sometimes even french weapon cheaper than US ones.

Why ? First there are not exactly the same weapon, comparison is hard to make. Then, US arms firms are really expensives. The US military complex is struggling to make cheap weapon as there used to do. Cheap F-18 and 16 are behind now. Anyway, there are a lot of complex technologies in all weapon, making it hard to make cheaper ones.
So much so that when it came time to use them the IAF chose not to ( French-origin Matra BGL LGB in Kargil). They bought Israeli bombs instead.
You agreed with the previous assumption telling that israelis weapon integration was very exepensive. And now you tell that the IAF chose not to use french ammunition and bought israelis instead. It is either one or other story, but not both.

In fact if you look at credible sources, the story is well different.
At that time, and with the Mirage the IAF possess, there were no Laser designation Pod available in France designed for THIS version of the Mirage. Beside, we didn't have a big stock of guided bombs, and it seems that geopoliticaly, France didn't want to play a keyrole into that conflict. At that time, France has also deals with Pakistan. The israelis came with a full package solution to integrate fast a pod and a bomb, both immediately available. That is the most suitable explanation I found.

I know, it doesnt fit with all the story telling about french .... blablabla.
 
I don't know what are you talking about. I can tell you a story that come directly from one person who was personally present during the négociation in India.

During one meeting, the question about Dassault to take in charge the warranty of the aircraft built in France came. Indian counterpart ask how it will be setup according to the MMRCA contest.

It was a bluff, nothing has been planned in the contract regarding that point and one french guy took the entire contract in paper in his hands, give it to his Indian counter parts and said :"ok, show me in the contract where this is written because we didn't see it.".

It wasn't written. It was a bluff and this is how it worked.
I think I was very clear in what I wrote. Not sure if you're using some translation app to understand what I've written or your understanding of the English language is inadequate.

This is what I wrote in the post before what you've quoted . Emphasis & colour coding added for better understanding.

On the contrary the CNC team prepared such a watertight agreement with some impossible clauses as far as the MMRCA went that Dassault had no choice but to play dirty.

They agreed to all the clauses & once they were declared the winner of the contest reneged from agreeing to stand guarantee to HAL's workmanship & time taken to deliver each FA & there's nothing we could do

And why didn't you quote the full post of mine when you did quote me.

Once again , I've written about this before but in tenders especially international tenders if there are deviations from the original agreement the bidder is expected to provide a list of exceptions at the time of bidding.

DA did no such thing. They played along & after they were declared the winner of the contest showed their true colours.

So where's the list of deviations when DA signed on to agree to the T&C of the MMRCA tender without which no bid is considered complete & therefore liable to be rejected .

And if DA submitted the tender with their stamp & seal duly attested WITHOUT any list of deviations / exceptions it's understood they've none whatsoever. This is standard international business practice.

I know you love tells that French are like this or that, but the reality is also that it is very hard to negotiate with India. There are many steps, all leads by people who has their own will and political agenda.
I've written about precisely this phenomenon in the preceding posts. Every other major tender used to see some form of corruption or the other with the result the succeeding tender tended to have even more watertight clauses which makes negotiations & implementation next to impossible.

The options are stark . Either don't participate in such tenders which is what SAAB Kockums , the Japanese & the Koreans did in the IN tender for the Project 75 I or indulge in sleight of hand like what Naval Group did in Project 75 pissing off the IN to the extent that they deliberately designed the tender for Project 75 I to keep NG out .

Incidentally Naval Group enjoys such a splendid reputation all around from Malaysia to Australia to Norway to India . Perhaps you should look into the reasons for their world wide popularity.

I think this article pretty much sums up NG's approach to business. If you think there's nothing wrong with it & NG is completely justified in protecting its interests what makes you think other countries aren't justified in protecting theirs.



I know companies which initially refused to propose anything to India, because they know they might spend outrageous amount of time (so, and in money) to negotiate and then get lost in the acquisition procedures. For some, the french government pushed them. So the price they propose include and extra margin.
Yes . So ? We get what we want . If not we develop it. I'm of the school of opinion it's better to starve the armed forces of imports altogether so that they start focusing on internal development & mfg. In short - indigenization.

Like in so many other fields we're getting there after a lot of hemming & hawing , zig zag movements , two steps forward & 1 backwards & so on. Trust you get the drift. If not do not hesitate to state you inability to comprehend what I've written . I'd have it translated in French & post it here.
"French this, french that..." But don't forget that Rafale and other stuff are sold all over the world and french is the second arms dealer behind the US, despite the fact that they do not possess their geopolitical power and leverage.
And what's that got to do with the subject at hand ? The US has always been the largest exporter of FAs the world over since the end of WW-2 till date. How many FAs have they exported to China & India ? Zero. How has it affected their market value or the defence preparedness of either nation ?
So, at one moment, please, consider to look at yourself as well.
Business is a two way transaction where both parties benefit after mutual agreement . Where there's no agreement or unilateral interpretation of it , it leads to conflict. I'm surprised I've had to inform you of it .

LIke for the previous off topic, you wrote a story telling based on assumptions, not fact. It's an opinion based on nothing. Like for the ISE.
What about the ISE ?
why it took so long to apply the ISE? Don't know. There where payment issues from India. Also, a lot of hardware did not came from France. As a journalist, I will tell that we don't have enough facts to understand what happened and I will stay at this position. I won't build a story.
I did write the ISE was to be implemented on the last of the Rafales to be delivered. Subsequently all the previously delivered Rafales were to be flown to France for these ISE related modifications .

I further wrote it was inconceivable why these modifications took 3+ years to be implemented . And that there was chatter on SM that there was a shortage of finances at our end which can't be confirmed & likely won't be for a long time.

Which part of it didn't you understand ?
 
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Are you sure ? Why french will dragg their feet with india to integrate other armaments ? Qatar has Sniper pod and it have been integrated fast, no issue with that. Why assuming that french drag their feet ?
All facts surrounding ISE are not in the public domain. The Rafale deal was the subject of litigation in India but our Supreme Court struck down appeals from the opposition for public disclosure on national security grounds.

But based on open source analysis, you can piece together fairly accurately what might have happened.

We know that Litening was specified as an ISE item from multiple press reports (in addition to other Israeli kit like Targo HMD, X-Guard, etc.

To be sure, Targo is an updated version of the Dash-4 HMD which is pretty much standard on all IAF combat jets, including the M2000.

(This despite the fact that HALs SAMTEL JV makes the Thales Topsight HMD under license in India). But I digress.

The IAF reportedly evaluated the Damocles and Litening G4 before buying the latter.


Qatar was a user of the Damocles pod and they found it lacked the high res A2G imaging modes of the Sniper. In any case, Talios only reached IOC with the AdlA around 2020. DA would've had no choice but to oblige the Qataris.

Not so for the IAF. DA is reported to have claimed there were integration issues with Israeli equipment and offered Talios/Hammer as an alternative.

MBDA/Safran did not have a comparable towed decoy to the Rafael X-Guard which left it with no alternative.
 
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This could be true, but reality is much complex. You can compare, at one point, JSOW with Hammer, and JASSM with SCALP. Depending of the number you'll find, you'll see that we are in very close numbers. Sometimes even french weapon cheaper than US ones.

Why ? First there are not exactly the same weapon, comparison is hard to make. Then, US arms firms are really expensives. The US military complex is struggling to make cheap weapon as there used to do. Cheap F-18 and 16 are behind now. Anyway, there are a lot of complex technologies in all weapon, making it hard to make cheaper ones.
You're right. There can be no comparison, especially when it comes to *scale*.

You agreed with the previous assumption telling that israelis weapon integration was very exepensive. And now you tell that the IAF chose not to use french ammunition and bought israelis instead. It is either one or other story, but not both.
Matra BGL was deemed to be too expensive to engage temporary fortifications set up by Pakistani forces atop Tiger Hill, etc.

A Brigade/Division HQ would've been a different matter but the IAF was under strict instructions not to engage targets across the border during Kargil.
 
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