India Said Close to Announcing 8-Billion-Euro Rafale Jet Deal
- Purchase of 36 fighter jets approved by India’s top panel
- France’s Jean-Yves Le Drian to visit India for signing deal
A Rafale fighter jet performs an aerial display at the 2015 Dubai Air Show.
Photographer: Jasper Juinen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
An India ministerial panel is said to have approved the purchase of 36 new fighter jets made by France’s Dassault Aviation SA, concluding a major step in its decade-long quest to modernize the country’s air force.
The Cabinet Committee on Security, which includes the prime minister, defense, foreign and finance ministers, has cleared the deal worth 8 billion euros ($8.9 billion) for Rafale fighter jets, people with knowledge of the matter said. The deal is likely to be signed later this week in New Delhi by India’s Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, they said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public.