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India on Wednesday cleared a 950-million deal to procure 500 air-to-air missiles from a French firm for the Indian Air Forces Mirage 2000 aircraft fleet.
A Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday cleared the deal to procure 490 MICA missiles manufactured by French firm MBDA for 950 million, Defence Ministry sources said in New Delhi.
The missiles would be deployed on 51 Mirage 2000 aircraft, which are already undergoing upgrades at French facilities under a 1.47-billion deal signed earlier this year.
Under the deal, MBDA will have to do offsets worth 30 per cent of the deal meaning that they will have to invest 315 million back in the Indian defence sector.
The Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) mandates that foreign vendors bagging deals worth over Rs. 300 crore have to invest back at least 30 per cent of the contracts worth into Indian defence, civil aerospace and homeland security sector.
India signed a deal with French companies Thales and Dassault Aviation, which will take 10 years to carry out mid-life upgrade of IAFs 51 Mirage 2000 fighters.
Two aircraft have already been flown to France for upgrades and the remaining would be modernised in India at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) facilities in India.
The cost of the contract for upgrade of the Mirage 2000 with Thales is 1,470 million while the cost of the contract with HAL is Rs. 2,020 crores (around 340 million). The upgrade of the aircraft is expected to be completed by mid-2021, Defence Minister A.K. Antony recently informed Parliament.
The Hindu : News / National : India to spend