Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
New Delhi, Oct 29 (IANS) President Draupadi Murmu will visit Ambala in Haryana on Wednesday, where she will fly in a Rafale fighter aircraft at the Ambala Air Force Station.
Notably, the President, who is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces, also flew in a Sukhoi 30 MKI fighter aircraft at Tezpur Air Force Station in Assam on April 8, 2023.
The thing to note here is that Rafale was also deployed during ‘Operation Sindoor’.
Earlier this month, IANS had reported that France’s Dassault Aviation was planning a Rafale assembly line in India keeping in mind orders from the Indian Navy and Air Force.
According to sources close to the development, India may soon become the first country to produce a 4.5 generation fighter aircraft without an original equipment manufacturer or OEM.
Dassault currently has a backlog of about 200 Rafales, which includes outstanding deliveries of existing orders of 80 aircraft for the UAE, 42 for Indonesia, 12 for Croatia, 54 for Egypt, 24 for Greece, 36 for Qatar and potentially 26 aircraft for the Indian Navy.
Sources revealed that with its current capacity limited to 24 aircraft per year, there is a strong case for Dassault to set up an additional production line in India at its joint venture, Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd (DRAL).
India is a big market and the Indian Air Force is considering purchasing 114 fighter aircraft. Request for proposal for this is expected to come in the next six months. This will be one of the largest orders for fighter aircraft anywhere in the world.
The Indian Navy’s order for 26 aircraft is also expected to be finalized within the next six months and deliveries will begin in 2027.
The Rafale manufacturing line at DRAL, Mihan Special Economic Zone, Nagpur, will see an additional five lakh square feet of infrastructure spread across 4 hangars, with production starting in 2028, sources had earlier said.
Annual capacity is planned at 24 aircraft per year or two aircraft per month. At an estimated cost of Rs 1,000 crore per aircraft in 2028, this will translate into sales of Rs 24,000 crore per year.
This will require an additional investment of about Rs 3,000 crore. In terms of employment opportunities, DRAL will have more than 600 employees to meet the final assembly line requirements for the Falcon 2000. With Rafale, it may cross the 1,200 mark.
–IANS
Rs/