French company Dassault Aviation will complete the deliveries of the 36 ‘Rafale’ fighter jets to the Indian Air Force (IAF) soon. As reported by Financial Express Online earlier, as per the Intergovernmental deal inked by both sides in September 2016, India had placed an order for 36 multi-role fighter jets in fly-away condition at a cost of Rs 59,000 crores. And as per the contract, the delivery of all the 36 will be completed by 2022.
The last of the three fighter jets with the 13 identified India specific enhancements (ISE) are expected to arrive later this week. The company has already handed over three fighters to the IAF and modalities are being worked out for ferrying them to India.
The aircraft will take off from France and will be supported by in-flight refueling on its journey, just like the previous times when the ferrying was supported by the air forces of France and UAE.
Will the earlier Rafale delivered to IAF have ISE?
Yes. The upgrade of the all the Rafale which are already with the IAF are in the process of being upgraded to the ISE configuration in India. All the 13 ISE are already certified by the concerned authorities.
Before being ferried to India, some of the ISE were incorporated at the manufacturing stage. And post certification the remaining are being included in the aircraft and this is related to software and hardware upgrades.
