- India selected the French Fighter Rafale over the Eurofighter Typhoon in a multi-billion dollar contract for the supply of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) — the country's largest defense deal to date.
- Interestingly, for a company that faltered at the start, with the Defence Ministry indicating that the Rafale was out of the race, Dassault made a comeback and went on to win the bid.
- Sources in the Ministry of Defence said the product was picked up on the basis of it being the Lowest Bidder (L1), a decision arrived at after complex calculations including the life-cycle costs. The two aircraft were chosen from a list of six, including U.S. Boeing (F/A18) and Lockheed Martin (F-16), Russian MiG-35 and Swedish Saab (Gripen), in April last year.
- The deal is estimated to be worth $10.2 billion (Rs.54,000 crore). The plan includes acquiring 126 aircraft, 18 of them in fly-away condition and the rest to be manufactured in India at the Hindustan Aeronautics facility under transfer of technology.
- For France, the MMRCA deal is the third big defence contract that has come its way. In the current financial year, the Government of India cleared the $2.4 billion upgrade of 51 Mirage-2000 aircraft and the $970 million supply of MICA fire-and-forget missile for the same aircraft.
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