The Rs 59,000 crore Rafale fighter jets deal, which has been in the centre of a bitter political slugfest between the Congress and the NDA Government, is back in the news after some unidentified persons made an attempt to break into the Paris office of Indian Air Force (IAF) project management team supervising the Rafale project. Espionage angle is not ruled out.
The incident took place on Sunday last and reports indicated that no hard disk or any other sensitive documents were stolen. The local police registered a case and is investigating about the motive, sources said here on Wednesday. However, the IAF and the Defence Ministry here refused to comment on the issue.
The IAF project team is headed by a Group Captain, aided by three other officers. The office to oversee the Rafale jet manufacturing is located in Saint Cloud suburb of Paris.
According to reports, since the administrative office does not keep money or valuables, it is possible that this could be a case of espionage to get hold of crucial data related to the Rafale deal. They also said the incident occurred on the Dassault Aviations premises.
Rafale is a nuclear capable aircraft and an attempt to get hold of technical specifications of the India-specific aircraft could seriously compromise its operations once the fleet of aircraft is inducted in the IAF, sources said. The Defence Ministry was briefed by the IAF about the incident, they added.
India and France had signed the Government to Government deal in September 2016 to buy 36 Rafale medium multi-role combat aircraft in fly-away condition. Dassault is manufacturing the aircraft as per the Indian specifications. There are nearly 13 India specific enhancements and the project management team is stationed in Paris to ensure the implementation.
As per the contract, the delivery of the fighter jets will begin in 36 months from the date of inking the contract and the entire fleet will be inducted in 67 months. The first lot is expected to reach India later this year.
The IAF plans to base the Rafale at Ambala and Hasimara, and infrastructure is development for the jets is in full swing.
