France and India acceeded to the Indian Navy’s longstanding request to purchase 26 Rafael Marine (M) jets in an inter-government agreement signed on 28 April 2025.
The deal follows an announcement from July 2023 in which the service – the first user of the naval aircraft outside France – initially selected the platform to populate its own aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant.
India’s acquisition of the naval aircraft responds to a “multi-dimensional threat environment,” commented GlobalData defence analyst Udayini Aakunoor.
The Navy must face numerous adversaries, from the “regular Chinese patrols near the Indian Ocean chokepoints like the Malacca Strait and [China’s] deepening maritime ties with countries in India’s periphery such as Sri Lanka and Pakistan,” Aakunoor observed.
Weighing 43,000 tonnes, and propelled by four LM2500+ gas turbines, Vikrant is a domestically designed and built aircraft carrier that entered service in September 2022.
The carrier can hold up to 36 aircraft; currently a mix of MiG-29K jets, Kamov Ka31s helicopters, and indigenous light combat aircraft (LCA). However, the Rafale-M will succeed as India’s carrier alongside the country’s own future, indigenous Tejas Mark 1A LCA.
The Rafael-M first entered service with the French Navy in 2004. According to intelligence from GlobalData, a leading analytics consultancy, France operate 42 Rafael-M aircraft, the last of which was acquired in 2016.
India’s Armed Forces already have a history of operating Rafael aircraft, as the nation’s air force operate 36 standard units, procured between 2020-22. Nevertheless, the Indian Navy will benefit from the experience of the French Navy in operating the Marine variant according to the original equipment manufacturer Dassault Aviation.
French-built jets and the pursuit of a domestic industry
The French supplier points to its existing industrial footprint within India’s increasingly indigenised defence industry. However, Dassault will design and build these new Rafael-M units in France as a way of reducing India’s reliance on Russian jets.
Nonetheless, the deal marks Dassault’s commitment to meeting the operational needs of the Indian Armed Forces since the induction of the Toofany seven decades ago.
At present, the Indian government claim that 65% of their defence equipment is now manufactured domestically; a significant shift from the nation’s earlier 65-70% import dependency. A large part of what enables India’s sovereign defence industry is the transfer of technologies from foreign countries.
One notable framework that has recently enabled India’s sovereign defence industry is its defence industrial collaboration and exploration with American institutions under the auspices of the India-US Defence Acceleration Ecosystem, or INDUS-X.
Sign up for our daily news round-up!
Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights.
