Nagpur: While at least 90 of 114 Rafales in the pipeline may be made in India, Dassault — the French aircraft giant — has already been manufacturing spares for the fighter plane at Nagpur’s Mihan-SEZ soon after the first deal to buy 36 fighter planes in 2016. The facility owned by Dassault Reliance Aviation Limited (DRAL) is a joint venture with Anil Ambani run conglomerate.Starting off with nose-cones for Dassault’s Falcon 2000 business jet, DRAL has eventually expanded into manufacturing spares for Rafale too. Currently, Nagpur is one of the major manufacturing facilities of Dassault in India. However, there’s no confirmation on whether Nagpur would be the site for making the fleet under the fresh deal. Last year, DRAL announced it would finally roll out an entire Falcon business jet from Nagpur. Once done, it would be the first business jet made within the country. DRAL sources also said it makes spares for Rafales.
The company holds 31 acres in the Mihan SEZ and is part of a larger campus —Dhirubhai Ambani Aerospace Park spread over around 300 acres. The Falcon 2000 business jet remains its main product now. Sources in Mihan said DRAL currently makes airframe parts such as the cockpit and other parts of the outer body of the business jet. The first subsection was built in 2019, and over 100 sub-sections have been delivered so far, bringing it closer to making an entire jet. The company hopes to make one in the next three years.The items made in Nagpur area are exported to France and this includes spares for both Rafale and Falcon. This is also because any firm in an SEZ must earn net foreign exchange, for which exports are mandatory, a source said.Even as TOI’s attempts to contact DRAL brass did not materialise, it was learnt that the company is still building a hangar. This means manufacturing the Falcon jet or any other aircraft on full scale may take some more time. A hangar is needed to hold an aircraft.As production goes on at DRAL, there is no intimation for making an entire aircraft so far, whether civilian or military, to authorities, said sources involved in monitoring the SEZ units. Dassault also has an engineering centre at Pune. The facility was recently expanded.Apart from the joint venture with Reliance in Nagpur, Dassault also tied up with Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) last year. The French company signed four production transfer agreements with Tatas. Under the partnership, the Tatas will be setting up a cutting-edge production facility at Hyderabad for manufacture of key sections of Rafale.
