Air Force: Not enough planes to face China and Pak

In the last month, India had a deal to buy high-end Rafale planes from France’s Dassault. However, the deal was scaled down to getting just 36 jets. Now that the deal has not given much to the Indian Air Force, the Air Force wants to quickly get jets in order to stop the fall in operational strength of India. At present, India has less than a third of what is needed to face both China and Pakistan.

According to the Air Force, there is currently a shortage of planes by 200. That is the number of planes India is trying to acquire immediately.

India is ready to buy hundreds of fighter planes from foreign manufacturers with one catch to the company. The jets should be made in India with a local partner. This was announced by air force officials. This is a very big deal for Air Planes.

India wants to make a deal for 200 single-engine planes produced in India. According to the air force, it could increase to 300 as they fully stop the production of ageing Soviet-era aircraft. This big deal could be worth around $13 to $15 billion according to experts.

The government of Narendra Modi wants to have military planes which are built in India with an Indian partner. This is meant to improve the domestic aircraft industry.

Now that such an offer is made, Lockheed Martin showed interest in setting up a production line in India for making F-16 planes not just for the Indian military, but also for export. Saab from Sweden also gave an offer regarding its Gripen aircraft. These two are the first to come forward for what could be one of the biggest military plane deals.

The Defence Ministry has already written to various companies about the proposal to set up an assembly line for single-engine fighter planes in India.

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