RIL-Dassault JV to produce aircraft wings
Business conglomerate, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) along with France’s Dassault Aviation, is planning to set up a facility to produce wings of Rafale combat aircraft selected by the Indian Air Force (IAF) for meeting its requirement of 126 fighter planes. The Rs1,000 crore facility between the two companies will most likely come up near Bangalore.
According to the understanding between the Indo-French companies, Dassault Aviation will help the Indian entity to establish factory similar to Dassault’s in France where the aircraft is produced. The Defence Ministry and other agencies concerned have already given a go ahead to the two companies for creating the unit.
After a five-year-long process, India selected Dassault’s Rafale to meet IAF’s requirement. The French company and the defence ministry been engaged in long contract negotiations after which the ministry finalised the deal which is expected to cost around Rs60,000 crore.
Earlier, Dassault wanted Reliance to be the main partner in production of the aircraft in India but the government made it clear that it was not possible as the tender for the procurement clearly stated that public sector undertaking, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) would be the lead integrator for the project.