The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) of the Indian government under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister has cleared a $950 million deal for the procurement of 490 Air-to-Air missiles from the French firm MBDA for the Mirage 2000 aircraft fleet of the Indian Air Force.
The Mirage 2000 fleet is to undergo mid-life upgrade with Dassault and Thales in France and two aircraft are already in the factory for this purpose. The rest would be upgraded by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) facilities in India. The contract with MBDA would carry an offset obligation of 30 per cent of the contract value. MBDA has a joint venture with state-owned Bharat Dynamics Limited, India’s missile manufacturer, through which the offsets are expected to be executed.