look news india
New Delhi, July 03 (HS). French company Dassault Aviation has decided to separate from Indian partner Anil Ambani's Reliance Defense and set up a stand-alone maintenance facility (MRO) in India. This MRO will be opened near Jewar International Airport in Uttar Pradesh, where maintenance, repair and overhauling of India's fleet of fighter Mirage-2000 and Rafale jets will be done. The needs of the Indonesian Air Force, which operates 42 Rafale fighter jets, will also be met from here.
In fact, Reliance Defence and the French company have a joint venture 'Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited' (DRAL), which operates a plant in Nagpur to make parts for Falcon business jets and Rafale. After this, Dassault Aviation had planned to set up a separate MRO with Indian partner Reliance Defence for maintenance, repair and overhauling of the fleet of fighter Mirage-2000 and Rafale jets.
Now Dassault Aviation has decided to separate from its Indian partner Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence for this project. French defense major Dassault Aviation has filed an application with the Indian government to set up an MRO. It will be an independent venture of Dassault Aviation and will be wholly owned by the French aviation firm. The company has given this application to register the proposed name of its venture in India.
The MRO to be built near Jewar International Airport will have complete facilities for the 36 Rafale fighter jets of the Indian Air Force and the 26 Rafale Marines to be purchased for the Indian Navy. Dassault Aviation will also meet the needs of Indonesia from this MRO, which operates 42 Rafale fighter jets. India has purchased 36 Rafale fighter jets under emergency purchase but there is a huge need to further strengthen the depleting combat strength of the Air Force.
The Air Force has a long-standing requirement for new fighter jets under the Medium Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) programme, under which it seeks to procure 114 new fighter jets through the 'Make in India' route. Currently, the Air Force has 31 squadrons against the sanctioned 42 fighter squadrons, which include ageing MiG-21s and Jaguars as well as MiG-29s. All these Russian aircraft are planned to be decommissioned by 2029-30.
The fighter squadron has around 270 Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft, which often need Russian spare parts for repairs, but the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has made the procurement of key spare parts even more difficult. So as a temporary arrangement, the Indian Air Force is in talks to buy 12 old Mirage fighter jets from Qatar. However, this is different from the aircraft that the Indian Air Force is using and hence it is likely to be raised as a separate squadron.
