NewDelhi: Amid row over the deal between India and France to procure 36 Rafale jets, Air Force Vice Chief Air Marshal S B Deo on Wednesday said that they are waiting for the aircraft.
“We’re waiting for the aircraft. Rafale is a beautiful and capable aircraft,” the Vice Chief of Air Force said.
Air Marshal S B Deo, however, declined to comment on the ongoing political accusation over the deal. “I shouldn’t comment but I can tell you all this discussion and all these things going on in Rafale..because we know a lot about how everything went, we find that, people don’t have the information,” he said.
His statement comes at a time when the Rafale deal is clouded in controversy with Congress alleging that the contract has been signed with France at a much higher price. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has defended itself claiming that they have got the best price and in turn trained guns at the UPA for compromising with national security by not buying the jets during its term earlier.
The defence agreement has been signed between the governments of India and France to purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft in fly-away condition as a part of upgrading process of Indian Air Force equipment. Rafale fighter aircraft, a twin-engine Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), is manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation.
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