 "Rafale")
France has submitted its response to India's tender for buying 26 Rafale Marine jets for the Indian Navy's aircraft carriers - INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya, according to news agency ANI. A team of French officials flew from Paris to submit a response to India's tender.
India issued a Letter of Request (LoR) in October for the acquisition of 22 single-seat jets and four twin-seat trainers. The LoR is like a tender document in which the Centre has specified all its requirements and capabilities that it would want to have in the Rafale Marine aircraft being acquired for the aircraft carriers INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya
India will now carry out a detailed study of the French bid for the Indian deal including the commercial offer or price for the aircraft, along with other details of the contract, they said. Then, India will negotiate the deal with the French government.
According to ANI, Navy Chief, Admiral R Hari Kumar, has directed the officials to ensure that the timeframe required for the project is squeezed significantly to ensure early finalisation and induction of the planes in the inventory.
The Navy and the government are working in a fast-track mode to ensure that the acquisition contract is signed at the earliest and Indian carriers can operate the highly capable aircraft to ensure an edge for New Delhi in the Indian Ocean region.
The aircraft deal worth around 5.5 billion euros was cleared by the Defence Acquisition Council just before the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to France as the state guest for their Bastille Day parade this year in July.
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According to a report in the Times of India (TOI), the Indian Navy currently has only 40 Mig-29K jets which were procured from Russia from 2009 onwards. However, these aircraft have been dogged by several problems over the years, including poor serviceability.
The Indian Air Force has already inducted 36 Rafales under its Rs 59,000 crore deal signed in September 2016.
