India to procure 500 air-to-air missiles from French firm MBDA
05 Jan 2012
India today cleared a €950 million deal for the procurement of 500 air-to-air missiles from French firm MBDA for IAF's Mirage 2000 aircraft fleet.
A Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting chaired by prime minister Manmohan Singh today cleared the deal with the French firm, for 490 MICA missiles manufactured by the firm, according to unnamed defence ministry sources, cited by PTI.
The missiles would be deployed on the 51 Mirage 200 aircraft currently undergoing upgrades at French facilities under a €1.47 billion deal signed earlier this year.
Under the deal, MBDA would do offsets worth 30 per cent of the deal meaning they would invest €315 million back in the Indian defence sector.
Under the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) foreign vendors bagging deals worth over Rs300 crore are required to invest back at least 30 per cent of the contract's worth into Indian defence, civil aerospace and homeland security sector.
The deal with French companies Thales and Dassault Aviation would see mid-life upgrades to IAF's 51 Mirage-2000 fighters carried out in 10 years.