As recently reported by the Times of India, Ministry of Defence of India is considering to break the contract with France for the purchase of 126 French fighters Rafale and intends to invest $25 billion into the development of the fifth-generation fighter FGFA with Russia.
Russian military expert Igor Korotchenko spoke about the reasons for such a decision in his interview to Pravda newspaper.
According to him, France has demonstrated itself as an unreliable partner. The Mistrals case undermined the reputation of Paris as a reliable supplier who is able to fulfill its obligations. India saw this and made certain conclusions redarding how France was subject to strong pressure by the Americans, which resulted in the fact that Russia did not receive the helicopter carriers.
The second reason, according to Korotchenko, was that the price of the Rafale has rocketed nearly 2.5 times. In addition, France has no intentions to transfer India full package of design documents and know-hows for its fighters, which is a clear disadvantage of the deal.
Rafale is a fourth-generation fighter, just as Russia’s Su-30MKI, which, in expert’s opinion, are just as good, and often outclass Rafale. Therefore for India it’s easier to strengthen cooperation with Russia to develop a fifth generation fighter, which will be substantially superior to all previous combat class aircrafts that France or other countries could offer.
The FGFA project began following a Russian-Indian agreement on cooperation in the development and production of the perspective multirole fighter, signed on October 18, 2007.
The Indian fighter jet will be based on the Russian single-seat PAK-FA fifth-generation fighter or Sukhoi T-50, but it will be designed to meet about 50 specific requirements by the Indian Air Force.
