French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in India on Tuesday (February 17, 2026) for a three-day visit. He has come here to participate in the AI Impact Summit which started from February 16, but during his visit, the mega deal can also be approved under which 114 Rafales are to be purchased. These Rafales will be available to the Indian Army by 2030.
India will spend Rs 3.25 lakh crore to buy 114 Rafale. In terms of price, this is considered to be India’s biggest military deal so far. Recently Indonesia has also purchased 42 Rafale jets from France. In the year 2022, the then government of Probowo Subianto had signed a deal with French aerospace company Dassault Aviation.
Indonesia had purchased 42 Rafale for 8.1 billion dollars i.e. about 68 thousand crore rupees. According to this, the price of one Rafale comes to Rs 1,747 crore. At the same time, India can spend Rs 3.25 lakh crore on the deal and accordingly one Rafale aircraft will cost India Rs 2,850 crore. In such a situation, the question arising in the minds of people is whether France is selling Rafale to India at an expensive price, or why Rafale is costing India Rs 1,000 crore.
What is the truth?
The reality is that India is paying Rs 2,850 for a Rafale aircraft because along with the aircraft, it is also buying missiles like Meteor and Scalp, precision guided bombs like Hammer, full mission simulator for training, long-term maintenance and spare parts and technology transfer of Rafale. This is the entire life cycle cost of the Rafale aircraft and accordingly this aircraft is becoming cheaper for India.
Rafale will be made in India
In the year 2016, India had purchased 36 Rafale and last year the naval variant of Rafale was purchased. Accordingly, the Air Force has 36 Rafales and the Navy has 26 Rafales for the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. This deal is also special because this time 96 Rafales can be manufactured at Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL) in Nagpur, India, while 18 Rafales will be made in France. The Rafale aircraft which are currently with the Indian Army were manufactured in France only. From 2030 to 2035, the total number of Rafale aircraft with India will increase to 176.
India is going to make such a big deal because the Air Force does not have the number of fighter planes it needs. Currently there are only 29 squadrons, whereas 42 squadrons are required. There are 16-18 fighter jets in a squadron.
