Rafale deal to help end Dassault row?

NEW DELHI: The fast-track acquisition of 36 Rafale fighters from France will certainly act as a shot in the arm for the beleaguered IAF, which was fast-losing its traditional air combat superiority even over Pakistan, leave alone being capable of confronting a "collusive threat" from China and Pakistan.

But just the two Rafale squadrons (18 jets each), which are to be delivered in two years once the over $4 billion contract is inked along with an intergovernmental agreement, will not do. IAF, after all, is down to just 34 fighter squadrons when at least 44 are required if the twin-threat actually does emerge from across its borders.

Moreover, roughly one-third of the existing fighters — virtually obsolete MiG-21s and MiG-27s as well as relatively new Sukhoi-30MKIs dogged by serviceability problems — are operationally unavailable at any given time to tear into the skies. Successive IAF chiefs have repeatedly sounded the red-alert to stress the country's rapidly-eroding air combat power but to no avail till now.

So, when PM Narendra Modi swung a new deal for 36 Rafales with better terms and faster delivery schedules with French President Francois Hollande in Paris on Friday, it was an innovative quick-fix solution to IAF's "critical operational necessity" for new fighters.

A risk-averse AK Antony, the country's longest-serving defence minister with an eight-year term, would probably never have pulled such a rabbit out of his hat. Modi's move also bypassed the deadlocked negotiations for acquisition of 126 Rafales under the long-pending $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project.

It will be illogical for IAF, already saddled with seven different types of fighters, to induct only 36 Rafales since each jet requires its own logistical and maintenance infrastructure. But a big question mark continues to hang over the MMRCA project, with seemingly irreconcilable differences between India and French aviation firm Dassault over the production costs as well as responsibility for the 108 Rafales to be manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics after technology transfer.

Government sources, however, contend the outright purchase of 36 Rafales will work to resolve the pricing issues with Dassault. "The first 36 jets may come without technology transfer but the modified MMRCA project will be under Make in India," said a source.

As a hedge against the delays in both the MMRCA and indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft projects, the government has also re-worked the earlier plan to co-design and co-produce the FGFA project with Russia.