New Delhi: India signed a deal of €950-million with a French firm to procure 500 air-to-air missiles for the Indian Air Force’s Mirage 2000 aircraft fleet, local media reported on Wednesday.
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.
India signed a deal with French companies Thales and Dassault Aviation, which will take 10 years to carry out mid-life upgrade of IAF’s 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.
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