Indian Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by PM Manmohan Singh has cleared the Rs 6,600 crore acquisitions of 495 French advanced missile systems to support the Mirage 2000 fighter jets; those are being promoted by Rs.10,947 crore programme finalized in July, 2010.

Cabinet has cleared the contract for the fire and forget MICA with French guard major MBDA on Jan 4th 2012. And other major defense deal, the acquisition of 75 Swiss turbo prop aircraft to train IAF recruit pilots for Rs 3,000 crore, is to be cleared next week. IAF wants to introduce the 75 Pilatus PC-7 basic trainers by 2013 to 2014.

All hits had been cleared for the MICA & Pilatus deals, even as the final calculations are started to select the lowest bidder between French Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon for the mega MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project to get 126 top-notch fighters at a cost to touch $20 billion.

MICA systems will be integral on IAF’s 51 Mirage 2000s, are upgraded with the help of French companies Dassault Aviation (aircraft manufacturer) and Thales (weapons systems integrator).

Cabinet clears French advanced missile systems:

Upgrade project cost will cross Rs 20,000 crore, and it will take over a decade to be completed.
Down to just 33-34 fighter squadrons (each has 16 to 18 jets) from a sanctioned strength of 39.5.
IAF is for a mix of new inductions and upgrades to save its operational readiness.
The first lot of the around 120 indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft will join IAF from end-2013 onwards.

India plans to introduce 300 stealth 5th generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) codeveloped with Russia from 2020 onwards.