Rafale

The Rafale is a twin-jet fighter aircraft able to operate from both an aircraft carrier and a shore base.
Equipped with a wide range of weapons, the Rafale is designed to carry out air dominance, aerial reconnaissance, ground support, in-depth strike, anti-ship strike and nuclear deterrence missions.
Rafale are “omnirole” fighters with the ability to perform multiple mission types simultaneously. The Rafale jets will be a crucial enhancement to India’s Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft (MMCA) fleet.
The biggest advantage of Rafale is that it is capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
In 2016, India signed a Rs 59,000 crore contract for 36 Rafale fighters with French firms Dassault Aviation and MBDA.
As per the agreement, the vendors Dassault Aviation and MBDA proposed to discharge 30 per cent of their offset obligation by offering high technology to DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation).

Under defence offset, a foreign supplier of equipment agrees to manufacture a given percent of his product (in terms of value) in the buying country. Sometimes this may take place with technology transfer.
To develop the Indian defence industry and bring in high technologies, the offset policy was adopted by India in 2005 for all capital defence purchases above Rs 300 crore made through imports. The foreign vendor, or Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), was required to invest at least 30 per cent of the value of the purchase in India’s defence or aerospace sectors.
The DPP (Defence Procurement and Procedure (DPP)) 2016 increased the threshold of defence offset to Rs 2000 crore from Rs 300 crores. This means for those purchases of above Rs 2000 crore the foreign company has to ensure 30% domestic value addition in India.

In a report tabled in the Parliament, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said that Dassault Aviation and European missile maker MBDA have not delivered on its promises regarding transfer of technology.
CAG submitted that the foreign vendors made various offset commitments to qualify for the main supply contract but later, were not earnest about fulfilling these commitments.

It is the highest decision-making body in the Ministry of Defence for deciding on new policies and capital acquisitions for the Army, Navy, Air Force and the Indian Coast Guard.
The Minister of Defence is the Chairman of the Council.

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