India’s Ministry of Defence is in active negotiations with France’s Dassault Aviation for 114 Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA), in a programme valued at approximately ₹3.25 lakh crore — the largest single defence procurement in the country’s history. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) granted Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for the proposal on February 12, 2026, formally setting the acquisition in motion.
The programme structure calls for 24 jets delivered in fly-away condition and 90 manufactured in India under the Buy & Make (Indian) category of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP). Any industrial arrangement would require a fresh agreement and a separate Request for Proposal (RFP) — the previous Dassault partnership with Reliance Defence, tied to the 36-jet deal signed in September 2016, carries no automatic carryover.
The IAF’s force structure gap is not theoretical. The service operates 29 fighter squadrons against a sanctioned 42, a deficit sharpened by the full retirement of the MiG-21 Bison fleet — once 19 squadrons strong. By 2035, ageing Jaguar SEPECAT and Mirage 2000 fleets are also scheduled for retirement.
Eight platforms originally responded to the MRFA RFI: Dassault Rafale, Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin F-21, Eurofighter Typhoon, Saab Gripen E, Mikoyan MiG-35, Boeing F-15EX Eagle II, and Sukhoi Su-35. In practice, the field has narrowed around the Rafale. India already operates 36 Rafale F3R jets inducted between 2020 and 2022 — 17 Squadron Golden Arrows at Ambala Air Force Station and 101 Squadron Falcons at Hashimara in West Bengal — giving the IAF an established maintenance infrastructure, trained pilot cadre, and a functioning logistics chain. Any rival platform would require building that ecosystem from zero, at additional cost and years of lead time.
MRFA Contenders: Status at a Glance
| Platform | Origin | IAF Familiarity | Status in Race |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rafale F3R | France | 36 in service (2 sqns) | Front-runner |
| F/A-18E/F Super Hornet | USA | None | Active |
| F-21 | USA | None | Active |
| Eurofighter Typhoon | Europe | None | Active |
| Saab Gripen E | Sweden | None | Active |
| MiG-35 | Russia | MiG legacy only | Diminished |
| F-15EX Eagle II | USA | None | Active |
| Su-35 | Russia | Su-30MKI legacy | Active |
While Safran is preparing to localize M88 engine assembly and production of critical components in India, France has refused to transfer source code for the Rafale’s AESA radar and other critical systems. The government’s defence export target of ₹50,000 crore by 2029 adds a secondary incentive: domestically assembled Rafales could be positioned for third-country sales under co-production arrangements, though no formal buyer has been named.
The cost of further delay is concrete. The 36-jet Rafale deal signed in 2016 for approximately ₹59,000 crore translates to roughly ₹1,639 crore per aircraft. At the MRFA’s projected per-unit cost, that figure has climbed steeply — a pattern that will compound through every additional budget cycle the programme spends awaiting Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) from the DAC. The draft RFP was first floated in 2017, revised in 2023, and a fresh round of industry consultations was completed in early 2025. The DAC, chaired by the Defence Minister, must grant AoN before commercial talks can formally begin. The DAC granted Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for the proposal on February 12, 2026. Following France’s response to the Letter of Request, a commercial RFP timeline is expected for the second half of this year.
