Indian Navy's Rafale-M Base Price Almost Decided, Will Sport Additional Upgrades

India and France have almost come to an agreement on the base price of Dassault Rafale-M fighter jets for the Indian Navy.

A French team arrived in India in late May for price negotiations for the deal. However, the negotiations were delayed until the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

Reports are now emerging that the negotiations have borne fruit, and the price of the vanilla Rafale-M or its base variant has almost been decided, likely costing €4 billion which includes the cost of a weapons package and a maintenance contract.

Moreover, the base price agreed upon is equal to the cost of Indian Air Force (IAF) Rafales. IAF bought 36 Rafales, which include 28 single-seater and 8 dual-seater variants in 2016.

This cost, however, does not include the cost of India-specific enhancements, which will increase the cost of these jets well north of €4 billion.

These enhancements include a new helmet-mounted display, and software changes in air-to-sea modes, enabling Rafale-Ms to land on India's aircraft carriers. Changes in its electromagnetic interference (EMI) and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) capabilities will also be made, apart from adding new low-band jammers, a better radio altimeter, and new high-frequency decoys.

The Indian Navy requires 26 Rafale fighter jets, which includes 22 navy-specific Rafale-Marine and 4 dual-seater Rafale-Bs for training purposes.

The navy will operate these jets from INS Vikramaditya and the made-in-India INS Vikrant aircraft carriers, alongside 40 odd Russian-made Mig-29K jets.

India's Rafale-Ms will have an impressive weapons package where it will be armed with Scalp-EG medium-range cruise missiles, Meteor long-range and Mica medium and short-range air-to-air missiles, and Hammer laser and infrared-guided bombs.

The price negotiations are being led by a joint-secretary-ranked IAS officer along with a commodore-rank Indian Navy officer.