Air Force Not Keen On 30,000 Crore Indo-French Missile Deal: Sources

NEW DELHI: An Indo-French proposed joint venture expected to be worth around 30,000 crore to develop short range air defence missiles seems to have run into rough weather as the Indian Air Force feels that its requirements could be met by indigenous Akash surface-to-air missile weapon system.

The proposed joint venture is planned between DRDO and the French missile manufacturer MBDA under which they were planning to produce short-range surface-to-air missile (SR-SAM) systems for the Indian Air Force for the Maitri programme.

The Akash air defence missile system has already been developed by the DRDO indigenously and its development trials were completed successfully by the agency in Odisha recently.

The SR-SAM is also planned to be a project in the same class, highly placed sources said in New Delhi.

The IAF feels that when the indigenous system meets the requirements of the force, then there is no requirement for importing or co-developing a similar system, they said.

As per the proposed SR-SAM project, the IAF had to induct 49 Missile Firing Units (MFUs) of the co-developed missiles.
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