India makes payments to French firm to upgrade Mirage fleet

[Invincible INDIAN]

India makes payments to French firm to upgrade Mirage fleet

NEW DELHI: India has started making payments to French defence major Dassault Aviation for upgrading its fleet of Mirage 2000 aircraft under a deal worth $2.4 billion.

The Indian government has started making payments for the deal to upgrade the Mirage aircraft, sources said.

As a result of the payments released for the deal by India, the price of dollar was impacted upon in the exchange today.

As per the proposal, French firms Dassault and Thales will upgrade the aircraft, which will add 20-25 years to the life of the Mirages, inducted by the IAF in the mid-80s.

Two different proposals, one for the upgrade of systems of the aircraft and the other for over 400 MICA missiles for the upgraded fleet, were placed before the CCS.

Under the deal, the French firms will help in upgrading the avionics, navigation systems, mission computers, electronic warfare systems and radars bringing the aircraft to the Mirage-2000-5 standards.

The French companies will have to invest over $900 million into the Indian defence sector as defence offsets.

As per the Indian defence offsets policy, foreign vendors bagging deals worth over Rs 300 crore have to invest at least 30% of the worth of the deal back into the Indian defence, civilian aerospace and homeland security sectors.

As per the agreement, India has sent two of its aircraft to France for upgrades and thereafter the rest would be upgraded at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited facilities.

 

[Lone Shooter]

Are you guys sure this heavy investment in 25 odd years old aircraft will be fruitful instead of buying new ones?

 

[illusion8]

Are you guys sure this heavy investment in 25 odd years old aircraft will be fruitful instead of buying new ones?

It is a stop gap till we get the MMRCA/ PAK FA. So yes its fruitful.

 

[Bl[i]tZ]

Are you guys sure this heavy investment in 25 odd years old aircraft will be fruitful instead of buying new ones?

Yup, 44 million a piece for upgrade is huge but if IAF and MoD think this is worth it than may be its worth it.

 

[Invincible INDIAN]

Three main aspects are there:

--> Need of hour to act as a filler
--> French companies will have to invest over $900 million into the Indian defence sector as defence offsets.
--> Full TOT

Bit costly, but justifies to some extent for the time being

 

[samrat]

Seeing the rate at which Mirages are crashing, will there be any thing left for upgrading.

 

[Invincible INDIAN]

Seeing the rate at which Mirages are crashing, will there be any thing left for upgrading.

Yes, $2.4bn

 

[Abingdonboy]

Good news these M2ks will act as great stop-gap measures until last MMRCAs are delivered in ~2022. The IAF have been very sensible hear they appreciate the need to keep the force fighting fit in a period of massive upgrading, this period is going to see a huge change to the face of the IAF and they need a platform they can rely on to tide them over. Additonally if LCA MK.2 faces any more delays these UPGs could be an ideal temporary measure. Like the past ACM marshal said, the force had a choice of throwing away a perfectly good airframe with 25+ years of left still left or going for this UPG and keeping them relevant and capable for another 10-15 years. And all those saying its not worth it, this UPG is going to dramatically enhance the M2k's capabilities to mean it is one of the finest 4.5 gen fighter on the planet capable,of fighting any (non 5th gen) fighter in the world. Many Rafale/5th gen kit is being incorporated onto the platform and the offsets and TOT pretty much pay for themselves.