India May Pay $161M for one Rafale-M jet, A 60% Increase from IAF's Rafale Procurement in 2016

India is poised to significantly bolster its naval aviation capabilities with the acquisition of 26 Rafale-M fighter jets from France. While the final price tag remains undisclosed, sources indicate a potential cost of $161 million (€146 million) per jet, marking a substantial increase from the $101 million (€91.7 million) paid for Rafale jets acquired by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2016.

This price difference is largely attributed to inflation adjustments over the past eight years.

The Rafale-M, a naval variant of Dassault Aviation's renowned Rafale fighter, is specifically designed for aircraft carrier operations. These advanced jets will be deployed on India's two aircraft carriers, INS Vikramaditya and the newly commissioned INS Vikrant, enhancing the Indian Navy's strike, air defence, and reconnaissance capabilities.

This procurement aligns with India's ongoing efforts to modernize its armed forces, evidenced by a series of high-value defence acquisitions over the past decade.

Notable deals include the 2018 purchase of the S-400 Triumf missile system from Russia for $5.43 billion, the 2015 acquisition of Apache and Chinook helicopters from the United States for $3 billion, and the 2020 procurement of MH-60R Seahawk helicopters, also from the U.S., for $2.6 billion.

The Rafale-M boasts impressive technical specifications, including a length of 15.27 meters, a wingspan of 10.9 meters, and a maximum takeoff weight of 24.5 tons. It is powered by two Snecma M88-2 turbofan engines, enabling high agility and power.

The aircraft is equipped with advanced avionics, such as the Thales RBE2 AESA radar and the SPECTRA electronic warfare system, ensuring superior situational awareness and protection against threats.

Its armament includes Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles, MICA short- and medium-range air-to-air missiles, Exocet AM39 anti-ship missiles, SCALP air-to-ground cruise missiles, and a 30mm GIAT 30 cannon.

The Rafale-M also has an operational range of approximately 1,850 kilometers, extendable through in-flight refueling.

Defence experts have welcomed the deal, emphasizing the Rafale-M's potential to provide India with a decisive advantage in the Indian Ocean region.

Admiral Karambir Singh, former Chief of Naval Staff, has stated that the Rafale-Ms will usher in a “new era of naval aviation,” while defence analyst Bharat Karnad has highlighted their range and weapons payload as crucial assets in the current geopolitical climate.

The acquisition of these advanced fighter jets is expected to significantly enhance India's naval air power, particularly as tensions rise in the Indo-Pacific region.

 

[Robin]

No one overhyped at all.

Add armaments, spares, and in Rafale case lifelong MRO as it refuses to let India have any TOTs or even Maintenance TOT as evidenced by Dassault trying to butt into even Mirage-2000I MRO by pushing out HAL.
Remember we spent about $3 billions overhauling, upgrading, integrating and flight testing by HAL for 48 Mirage-2000Is.
Wait for real numbers to be spelt out.

$30+ billions for 114 MRFA and lifelong MRO slavery is a definite possibility.

TOT is myth and nonsense.Even after 25 + years of making AL-31 engines we just make 55 percent of it,Chinese have copied and made ws series functional.

Problem is manufacturing competence and engineering problem in India.No one is bothered with it.Cureent govt was one of the most powerful in decades but failed to overhaul anything regarding manufacturing.

Till our industry is capable ,no one is holding our hands and telling us how to walk.

 

[Robin]

1. Thailand requested F-35s, but the US rejected the request and offered F-16 Block 70/72s instead. Thailand is seen to be too close to China.

2. The US has not offered F-35s to India, and has in fact said on occasion that the F-35 will almost certainly not be the first US-origin fighter to be operated by India. They are in favour of India buying either the F-16V or F-15EX before offering the F-35.

3. USD 80/unit? I suppose you mean it to be USD 80 million per unit. If not, heck, I can probably get 250 or so F-35s without much issue. 😛

4. The 80 million USD figure is the cost price of the F-35. The US Armed Forces get the F-35 at a very small markup beyond that. For exports, however, once you factor in infrastructure, training, armament, spares, and other things, the cost can easily balloon to several times that figure. For reference, among recent F-35 sales, Greece will pay 215 million USD per jet (with few weapons, as they will use the F-16 weapon stocks mostly), and Czechia will pay 233.33 million USD per jet (again, few weapons included).

F-35 won't be offered to a neutral country like India playing in everyone's lap.

Just go the Chinese way and set up reverse engineering department with top scientists and engineers.It will yield results in 5 years.

If out core engineering is good ( which is not ) ,we would have absorbed all the tech that we got with su-30,mig-29 atleast which are very old planes.We could.even absorb that.

 

[Akshat]

Just cancel these high expensive machines.

Thailand is negotiations with USA is fir 80 USD/unit for F35. Rafale is very expensive.

Rafale beat F18 in price. And you think F35 will be cheaper than F18? 😂😂😂

 

[kurtwallis wallis]

India is helping France to keep Dassault-Thales be afloat and not go bankruptcy...

 

[NSR]

TOT is myth and nonsense.Even after 25 + years of making AL-31 engines we just make 55 percent of it,Chinese have copied and made ws series functional.

Problem is manufacturing competence and engineering problem in India.No one is bothered with it.Cureent govt was one of the most powerful in decades but failed to overhaul anything regarding manufacturing.

Till our industry is capable ,no one is holding our hands and telling us how to walk.

Except for Great RM Shri Parrikar Ji, most of the RMs are Top Down ones with no visions.
PM is too busy for 10+ years with hyping his and his party instead of attending to Defense and Huge chinese trade deficit problems, etc
So it is going nowhere.

 

[Robin]

India is helping France to keep Dassault-Thales be afloat and not go bankruptcy...

We did the same with Sukhoi in 90's with su-30.
After 25 + years we can't make even al-31 engine ourselves.

What I am trying to say is to absorb any critical tot we should have a powerful manufacturing and dedicated base which we just don't have.Govt is in majority at this time and can change these things ,maybe bring private players in big way so what things change after 4-5 years.

Else we will remain the largest importers for forseable future.

 

[Robin]

Battlefield has changed completely if u see the Russia - ukraine war.
Very costly fighter jets ,tanks ,even huge naval assets though are needed in good numbers but continue to matter less and less everyday.

10 years down the line the war is going to be fought with drones ,fpv's,tactical missiles.

The modern war zone with esm and countermeasures makes aircrafts a very costly solution and are used sparingly as a result.They do matter more against poorly equipped adverseries.

Solution - Produce good enough equipment in huge numbers ,indigenize everything.I would rather have 5 Tejas than 1 rafale and ability to produce more in vasenof war without risk of sanctions.At the moment continue with rafale ,but in future full focus is needed in mk2 and amca.

 

[vamkris]

India shall develop missile defence against hypersonic missiles of china (whether s500) which can attack Visakhapatnam naval base like iran attacked air base of Israel yesterday and also defence against MIRV technology nuclear missiles

 

[PKPRS]

Good , what 50,000 cr i think it is including weapon pakage Seal te deal, HA ha Ha where are those who were claiming 270 Mn $ for Rafale , so iprice for Rafale in 2016 is out & its 91.7 Mn Euro , My Guess is MRFA deal would between 18 Bn$ to 22 Bn $ & Not over hyped 40 Bn $ & 50 Bn$ according to some Forum experts

The article clearly says that this price is for the Rafale F3R barebones, which is too much for a 4.5 gen jet, more than double than the cost for a 5th gen F35 barebones

 

[sanket]

Not too sure of exports from India for now, but if the Rafale does win MRFA (and I'd say it has the best chance so far of the contenders) we should see a nice production line in India. Moreover, having that large a fleet will also allow us to pressurise Dassault into opening up the MRO centre much more.

who said export now, i have 100 times commented If Dassault wins MRFA which is most Likely Then will establish Production Line with eco-system & with that plant they Export Rafale From Bharat .Nagpur plant DRAL most likey

 

[sanket]

The article clearly says that this price is for the Rafale F3R barebones, which is too much for a 4.5 gen jet, more than double than the cost for a 5th gen F35 barebones

when did i said with armaments & Maintanace

 

[PKPRS]

TEDBF is the best option even if it cost more than Rafale-M.

All quality indigenous defence weapons made in India is the best option than foreign imported one.

Because money remain in the country and helps overall economy of our country.

Yes, it would be better to scrape this deal and go for Naval Tejas and eventually TEDBF whether it is good or not.

 

[PKPRS]

The problem with that is the fact that the TEDBF won't be operationally available for atleast another decade. How do you propose using our 40 MiG-29Ks (of which we may have 32-33 available at any point) on two carriers, each of which requires an air wing of 22-26 aircraft?

This is why we need to start with Naval Tejas and slowly move to TEDBF or even Gepen-E naval, SAAB is ready to make a naval variant for GOI or even F/A-18.

 

[PKPRS]

Thailand requested F-35s, but the US rejected the request and offered F-16 Block 70/72s instead. Thailand is seen to be too close to China.

Thailand is buying 16 Gripen-E’s.

 

[PKPRS]

Rafale beat F18 in price. And you think F35 will be cheaper than F18? 😂😂😂

you are saying $300Mln is cheaper.

 

[PKPRS]

when did i said with armaments & Maintanace

Not only that, we also have additional cost for Airforce specific mods and additional cost for navy specific mods on top of that, which will definitely take the price closer to $300Mln for a 4.5 gen jet.

 

[A Roy Chaudhuri]

Do not understand why government spending huge amount of tax payers money to buy only 26 Rafael M.

 

[Anant]

This is why we need to start with Naval Tejas and slowly move to TEDBF or even Gepen-E naval, SAAB is ready to make a naval variant for GOI or even F/A-18.

The naval Tejas was rejected for a number of very valid reasons. No point flogging that dead horse. Let the NLCA be used as a technology demonstrator, and potentially as a trainer.

Now, as for a navalised Gripen, it will be very expensive unless we go for a large production run. Essentially, if one really wanted the navalised Gripen, we'd have to either cancel TEDBF or find other customers for the Gripen N.

Finally, most criticisms that are levelled towards the NLCA can also be levelled to a reduced extent towards the navalised Gripen. Hence, I am fairly certain that will never materialise.

 

[Anant]

Thailand is buying 16 Gripen-E’s.

That may be the case. I only mentioned that the US offered F-16Vs in response to Thailand's F-35 request.

 

[Anant]

Do not understand why government spending huge amount of tax payers money to buy only 26 Rafael M.

Because our carriers need fighters? Not sure why that is so difficult to comprehend?

 

[Akshat]

you are saying $300Mln is cheaper.

I am saying Rafale is the cheapest plane among all viable options for India, whatever its price is.

 

[Akshat]

The article clearly says that this price is for the Rafale F3R barebones, which is too much for a 4.5 gen jet, more than double than the cost for a 5th gen F35 barebones

It’s still the cheapest among all the planes that qualified the trials, whatever the price is 😂😂😂

 

[PKPRS]

I am saying Rafale is the cheapest plane among all viable options for India, whatever its price is.

This is also your statement, but the reality is different.

 

[Akshat]

Not sure where the 6% inflation rate came from. In the 36 Rafale deal, the inflation was pegged at 4% and that was also breached only once.

 

[Akshat]

This is why we need to start with Naval Tejas and slowly move to TEDBF or even Gepen-E naval, SAAB is ready to make a naval variant for GOI or even F/A-18.

F/A -18 lost to Rafale on price. Gripen didn’t qualify even the pre-bid scrutiny as we will have to pay for the entire development. So no thanks. IN wants Rafale and they should get what they want.