NEW DELHI: India has signed a contract to purchase 26 Rafale fighter jets from France, New Delhi’s defense ministry said Monday, with the multi-billion-dollar deal to include both single and twin-seat planes.
When delivered, the jets would join 36 French-made Rafale fighters already acquired by New Delhi as part of its efforts to rapidly modernize its military hardware.
“The governments of India and France have signed an inter-governmental agreement for the procurement of 26 Rafale Aircraft,” the defense ministry said in a statement.
The jets made by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation are expected to operate from Indian-made aircraft carriers, replacing the Russian MiG-29K jets.
“It includes training, simulator, associated equipment, weapons and performance-based logistics” as well as 22 single-seater and four twin-seater jets, said India’s defense ministry.
“It also includes additional equipment for the existing Rafale fleet of the Indian Air Force (IAF).”
The Indian government announced its intention to procure 26 Rafales in 2023, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited France for the Bastille Day celebrations.
Despite historical ties with Russia as its key supplier for military equipment, India has diversified in recent years with key purchases including from France as well as from the United States and Israel.
Dassault said that the jets will provide India with “state-of-the-art capabilities” and an “active role in guaranteeing national sovereignty and consolidating India’s role as a major international player.”
India’s navy is the first user outside France of the Rafale Marine jet, the company said.
Monday’s deal comes as India’s relations with arch-rival Pakistan plummet to fresh lows.
New Delhi has accused Pakistan of backing the deadliest attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir since 2000 — claims Islamabad denies.
The two countries have exchanged gunfire, diplomatic barbs, expelled each other’s citizens and shut border since the April 22 attack, in which 26 men were killed.
Analysts say there is also a serious risk of the crisis turning into a military escalation.
The earlier contract for 36 Rafale aircraft, agreed in 2016, was worth about $9.4 billion.
Many global arms suppliers see the world’s most populous nation — and fifth-largest economy — a key market.
India has become the world’s largest arms importer with purchases steadily rising to account for nearly 10 percent of all imports globally in 2019-23, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said last year.
India has also eyed with worry its northern neighbor China, especially since a deadly 2020 clash between their troops.
That sparked a wave of defense reforms in the country, with both a push for fresh contracts from foreign suppliers and simplified laws to push domestic manufacturing and co-production of critical military hardware.
This decade India has opened an expansive new helicopter factory, launched its first homemade aircraft carrier, and conducted a successful long-range hypersonic missile test.
That in turn has fostered a growing arms export market which saw sales last year worth $2.63 billion — still a tiny amount compared to established players, but a 30-fold increase in a decade.
India has deepened defense cooperation with Western countries in recent years, including the Quad alliance with the United States, Japan and Australia.
India signs deal with France for 26 Rafale fighter jets
https://arab.news/54aa4
India signs deal with France for 26 Rafale fighter jets
- Monday’s deal comes as India’s relations with Pakistan plummet to fresh lows over an attack in Kashmir
- The two nuclear-armed countries have exchanged gunfire, diplomatic barbs and expelled each other’s citizens
Philippines eyes closer cooperation on advanced defense tech with UAE
- Philippine-UAE defense agreement is Manila’s first with a Gulf country
- Philippines says new deal will also help modernize the Philippine military
MANILA: The Philippines is seeking stronger cooperation with the UAE on advanced defense technologies under their new defense pact — its first such deal with a Gulf country — the Department of National Defense said on Friday.
The Memorandum of Understanding on Defense Cooperation was signed during President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s visit to Abu Dhabi earlier this week, which also saw the Philippines and the UAE signing a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, marking Manila’s first free trade pact with a Middle Eastern nation.
The Philippines-UAE defense agreement “seeks to deepen cooperation on advanced defense technologies and strengthen the security relations” between the two countries, DND spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arsenio Andolong said in a statement.
The MoU “will serve as a platform for collaboration on unmanned aerial systems, electronic warfare, and naval systems, in line with the ongoing capability development and modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” he added.
It is also expected to further military relations through education and training, intelligence and security sharing, and cooperation in the fields of anti-terrorism, maritime security, and peacekeeping operations.
The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has described security and defense as “very promising fields” in Philippine-UAE ties, pointing to Abu Dhabi being the location of Manila’s first defense attache office in the Middle East.
The UAE is the latest in a growing list of countries with defense and security deals with the Philippines, which also signed a new defense pact with Japan this week.
“I would argue that this is more significant than it looks on first read, precisely because it’s the Philippines’ first formal defense cooperation agreement with a Gulf state. It signals diversification,” Rikard Jalkebro, associate professor at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi, told Arab News.
“Manila is widening its security partnerships beyond its traditional circles at a time when strategic pressure is rising in the South China Sea, and the global security environment is (volatile) across regions.”
Though the MoU is not an alliance and does not create mutual defense obligations, it provides a “framework for the practical stuff that matters,” including access, training pathways, procurement discussions and structured channels” for security cooperation, he added.
“For the UAE, the timing also makes sense, seeing that Abu Dhabi is no longer only a defense buyer; it’s increasingly a producer and exporter, particularly in areas like UAS (unmanned aerial systems) and enabling technologies. That opens a new lane for Manila to explore capability-building, technology transfer, and industry-to-industry links,” Jalkebro said.
The defense deal also matters geopolitically, as events in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific region have ripple effects on global stability and commerce.
“So, a Philippines–UAE defense framework can be read as a pragmatic hedge, strengthening resilience and options without formally taking sides,” Jalkebro said.
