The leaders of France and India have inaugurated an assembly line for the Airbus Helicopters H125 light single in India but offered little guidance on a potential order for 114 Dassault Rafales.
French President Emmanual Macron, who is in India for a state visit, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducted a “virtual” inauguration the assembly line, according to a social media post by Tata Advanced Systems, Airbus’s local partner in the project.
The line is the first private sector helicopter production line in the country.
“Our collaboration with France is limitless, where even the sky is not a limit to our mutually beneficial partnership,” says India defence minister Rajnath Singh.
“The H125 has proven to be the one of the most effective and trusted single-engine helicopters globally.”
The event also saw the rollout of the first H125 produced at the factory in a camouflage paint scheme, although New Delhi has yet to order the H125M military variant.
When it announced the line in January 2024, Airbus Helicopters said it would address demand from the domestic market and neighbouring countries.
Airbus and Tata already collaborate on local production for the C295 tactical transport. Tata also has experience in rotorcraft aerostructures, supplying fuselage sections for the Boeing AH-64 Apache and Sikorsky S-92.
In addition, Bharat Electronics and Safran signed a memorandum of understanding to form a joint venture that will manufacture the AASM Hammer precision munition in India.
In a lengthy joint statement covering a broad array of cooperation areas, Macron and Modi “commended” the contract under which India will obtain 26 Rafale M fighters for the navy, as well a new maintenance repair and overhaul facility for the Rafale’s M88 engine.
They also alluded to India’s Defence Acquisition Council’s recent according of an Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for arms purchases, which includes the Rafale under India’s long running Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft requirement.
“They expressed their wish to further strengthen their partnership in defence aeronautics, especially in the field of manufacturing of fighter aircraft and combat aircraft engines under the Make in India initiative, and welcomed recent positive developments in this regard,” reads the joint statement.
An AoN from the Defence Acquisition Council is a formal approval that a military purchase is justified, allowing the government to move forward into detailed tendering, vendor selection, and eventual contract negotiations.
The Rafale won India’s original Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft competition in 2012, but the deal collapsed in 2015 owing to disagreements around technology transfer, local production, and costs.
