NEW DELHI \u2014 The $8.9 billion deal for the purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft from France will likely be delayed due to a AgustaWestland bribery scandal and a cautious government in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, India’s federal Law Ministry has also made observations in the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) on Rafale deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The Ministry of Law and Justice has made certain observations (on the Rafale acquisition) and the same will be taken into account while finalizing the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA), which is still under negotiation,”\u00a0Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told Parliament on May 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Parrikar said bilateral negotiations on the Rafale deal have not been finalizedhave not been concluded<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n “We are currently examining the observations made by the Ministry of Law and Justice and not<\/span> timeline can be set aside,” said\u00a0a Ministry of Defence\u00a0official,\u00a0who spoke on condition of anonymity.\u00a0He would not elaborate on the Ministry of Law and Justice’s “observations.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence expressed its displeasure over the unconcluded\u00a0deal: “The committee are unhappy to note that although a considerable time has elapsed, negotiations with France on Rafale (fighter aircraft) could not be taken to a logical end.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last month, a source at the\u00a0French Embassy said that\u00a0“30 percent offsets will be embarked for future military aviation research and\u00a0development (R&D) programs, and the remaining 20 percents will [be embarked] with Indian [defense] industries making components for Rafale.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n French defense companies Safran,\u00a0Thales and Dassault will provide state-of-the-art technologies in stealth, radar, thrust vectoring for missiles, and materials for electronics and micro-electronics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n India plans to purchase\u00a0Mica air-to-air missiles, Scalp air-to-ground missiles, Meteor beyond-visual-range missiles and precision-guided munitions for Rafale aircraft.\u00a0Rafale aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF) will carry 10 tons of weaponry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n India also plans to buy all 36 Rafale fighters in fly-away condition. First delivery of the Rafales is expected within 20 months of the contract.\u00a0France\u00a0will also provide ten years of\u00a0maintenance and spares support for Rafale aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fighter aircraft strength of IAF is down to 25 squadron (a squadron is equal to 18 aircraft). A strength of 45 squadrons is required by the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The $8.9 billion deal for the purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft from France will likely be delayed due to a AgustaWestland bribery scandal and a cautious government in India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":44105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":11,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[11,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3390],"class_list":["post-21207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global","category-home"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"5XHVQGCVCZAZPAQ7FEVPB7ONA4","arc_canonical_url":"\/global\/2016\/05\/05\/agustawestland-scandal-casts-shadow-on-rafale-deal\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n