New Delhi: French defence major Dassault Aviation has filed an application with the Indian government to set up a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility near Jewar international airport in Uttar Pradesh to cater to not just India’s fleet of Mirage 2000s and Rafale fighter jets, but also that of Indonesia.
Government sources told ThePrint that the proposed MRO facility is a standalone venture of Dassault Aviation and will be fully owned by the French aviation firm.
This means Dassault has decided to move away from its Indian partner Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence for this project. With Reliance, it has a joint venture called Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL) which operates a plant in Nagpur to make parts for the Falcon business jets and Rafales.
Sources said the company has filed an initial application for registering the proposed name of its India venture.
They added that the facility will initially look at MRO-related work for the 36 Rafale fighter jets of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the 26 Rafale Marine under discussion between Dassault and the Indian Navy.
Sources also said that Dassault Aviation had informed them the MRO facility would also cater to the needs of Indonesia which operates 42 Rafale fighters with the option for more.
This is the first step of a larger plan proposed by Dassault Aviation for operations in India, they added.
Interestingly, the IAF has a long-pending requirement for new fighters under the Medium Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) programme, as part of which they want to procure 114 new fighters through the ‘Make in India’ route.
Sources said that while the Narendra Modi government had gone in for 36 Rafale fighters under emergency procurement, the larger need to beef up the depleting IAF fighter strength remained.
While the IAF currently has about 31 fighter jet squadrons against the sanctioned strength of 42, these include the ageing MiG 21s and Jaguar besides the MiG 29, all of which will be decommissioned by 2029-30.
The majority of the IAF’s fighter jet squadrons is made up of about 270 Su-30 MKI, which has a bad availability ratio. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has further made key spare parts difficult to procure.
As a stop-gap arrangement, the IAF is in talks with Qatar to procure 12 Mirage fighter jets. However, this is different from the ones that are being used by the IAF and, hence, is likely to be raised as a separate squadron.
Sources said upgrading the 12 aircraft to the standard of those operated by the IAF does not make sense because the cost would be very high.
The IAF has, in the meanwhile, ordered 83 LCA MK1 A from the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, delivery of which was to begin late February.
However, as reported by ThePrint in March, the entire delivery has been delayed by at least four months due to multiple issues including sourcing of a small but critical component.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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