IAF chief ACM AP Singh in France, India starts talks for 114 Rafale fighter jets

New Delhi: The chief of air staff Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh landed in France on Monday for a four-day visit, a week after India formally kick-started the negotiations for the 114 Rafale fighter jet deal.

The defence ministry last week issued a letter of request (LoR) to the French government for the deal, which will see 94 Rafale jets manufactured in India by the French defence major, Dassault Aviation, in partnership with an Indian company. The LoR outlines India’s expectations and the conditions for weapons integration.

The deal, estimated to be around ₹3.25 lakh crore, is the largest defence deal in the Indian Air Force’s acquisition history.

The French government is expected to respond to the Indian letter of request in the next two to three months. The two countries will likely conclude the negotiations and the deal within the next year, ANI reported.

The LoR comes ahead of the contract negotiation committee (CNC) stage, where commercial and contractual terms will be finalised. The final nod for the deal will be given by the prime minister-led Cabinet Committee on Security.

During his four-day visit, the air chief is expected to hold talks with senior French military officials and representatives from Dassault Aviation and the French missile-maker MBDA, which supplies the IAF with the Meteor, MICA and SCALP missiles. The air chief is set to return on June 5.

The prime minister, Narendra Modi, will also visit France this month, according to media reports. The Rafale deal will likely be one of the key areas of discussion between the leaderships of the two countries.

The 114 Rafale jets deal is crucial to India, given the dwindling fighter squadron strength. The Indian Air Force is required to have a total of 42 fighter jet squadrons. It, however, currently has only 30 of them. India already operates a total of 36 Rafale jets worth ₹59,000 crore, which arrived in a fly-away condition from France in 2020.

In terms of indigenous weapons integration, the IAF wants the new jets armed, over their service life, with the Astra beyond-visual-range missile, the BrahMos-NG compact cruise missile, and other domestically developed systems.

The Indian Air Force has not pressed France for Rafale’s proprietary source code but is instead known to have asked for interface control documents. These are technical frameworks that allow indigenous weapons to be integrated and certified without exposing protected software.

The deal involves getting 88 single-seat and 26 twin-seat aircraft. Of these, a total of 18 will come in a flyaway condition from France, while the remaining 96 will be made in India.

Dassault has already partnered with Tata Advanced Systems Limited on Rafale aerostructures. If all goes well and negotiations stay on track, the contract could be signed in the first half of 2026, with initial deliveries around 2030.

The deal is also expected to cover future upgrades, reports stated.

The Air Force’s fighter jet procurement has been a long-drawn saga spanning several decades. The 114-jet deal was originally known as the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) tender. Floated in 2007 for 126 jets, it was eventually shelved in 2015. The remade project is now known as the multi-role fighter aircraft (MRFA) programme.