After over a decade long competition, India, currently the world’s ninth largest military spender with annual expenditures topping $40 billion and growing has renewed its long standing strategic relationship with France the worlds third largest military spender for decades to come in a decision to purchase 126 French multi-role Rafale combat aircraft. Dassault Aviation’s omnirole Rafale beat out the American F-16IN/F-18 Super Hornet, Russian Mig-35, Swedish Gripen and the last final contender of the Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition the Eurofighter Typhoon in the largest military arms deal so far this century. In the process they likely secured the first ever major Rafale export deal in almost two decades valued at over $20 billion with countless more billions of dollars in support and upgrades rolling in over the following decades.

India’s choice of the Rafale jet fighter will provide a truly vital boost to France and Europe’s international economic and industrial prestige and solidifies their geopolitical alliance with Europe and the West in general on defense matters. Naturally, the deal would likely not have been possible without the past relationship between the two nations in military deals and of course the vital transfer of technology agreement between France and India which will help the world’s most populous democracy develop their own aerospace industry, which up to date has mostly been producing aircraft under strict licenses with foreign partners, mostly Russian.

All is not won yet though, the final negotiations between France’s Dassault and the Indian Air Force (IAF) and respective governments are expected to carry over the coming month and you can certainly count on competitors lobbying, offering sweetened deals and trying to shift India’s decision before the final contract is signed irregardless of whether the Indian Air Force has picked its new personal favorite or not.

Under the new deal the first 18 ready to fly Rafales built in France would arrive in the Indian Air Forces hands by 2015. The rest of the Rafales would be built assembled on a production line in India.

The massive contract is expected to shape India’s aerospace and military industries for the next three decades at least and would renew a long standing and highly sought after strategic partnership between India and highly interested International powers and arms manufacturers. It would also provide an important boost to the French military industrial complex in a time when national budget deficits are forcing most European military’s to down size and cut back heavily. India’s own defense sectors would of course also benefit enormously from the transfer of technology and gain decades of research and development against its regional competitors almost overnight.

With the help of key Eurofighter Typhoon consortium partners, the UK’s prime minster David Cameron is publicly taking the forefront to heavily lobby and put all of the UK’s political, economic and geopolitical clout over India in a bid to try to force the deal to breakdown during the months of final financial negotiations between the French and Indians, hoping to bribe, coerce and convince the Indian politicians and put pressure on the Indian Air Force to drop the Rafale completely signaling the projects likely death in favor of the EF. Pretty low posturing from the UK considering they’re supposed to be a part of the EU after all.

The Eurofighter was of course the only other finalist to remain in the decade long competition against the Rafale and it is a truly a major blow to the EF consortium’s project, with the Indian Air Force having took the strategic and calculated political decision to go with the French Rafale due the the transparent almost scientific technical merits and the important beneficial military partnership India has had with France for decades now.

Unusually enough when it comes to arms deals like this, the whole deal so far has apparently been without much political interference, and Indian politicians decided this time to keep the process transparent and leave it in the hands of the Indian Air Force, the most apt to decide on these types of matters, hence the Rafale’s victory.

Jasjit Singh, the former air commodore and director of the Delhi-based Center for Air Power Studies, “This process, systematic and almost scientific, even if rather prolonged, should finally lay the ghost of Bofors – that has been the major cause of delays in defense modernization for the past century – to rest.” He is of course referring to past arms procurement deals India has been involved in which were marred by bribery and political influence, which neither got India the best weapons needed nor for the best cost and caused much outrage amongst the Indian military, experts and tax paying public alike.

Mr Singh went on to add that the Indian aerospace industry was in its infancy, and the most prominent Indian company, Bangalore-based Hindustan Aeronautics and others in the Indian military industrial complex desperately needed to accelerate building an independent and self grown defence industry base that can equip the Indian military against strategic regional competitors like China and Pakistan and at the same time prepare home grown technology to compete with Russia and China in export markets in Asia and Africa.

France’s Dassault and transfer of technology agreements would definitely provide a massive boost and technological edge in positive economic times where India clearly has the necessary revenue patterns to devote much on R&D and military production to secure their edge in the face of future economic downturns in an attempt to catch up with long standing regional and neighboring rival China which currently holds a strong and defined military advantage over India. The Rafale would definitely likely do well in the geographic conditions and mountainous border regions as an omnirole fighter with air, ground, and nuclear strike capacities all wrapped into one affordable package. India would definitely have a strong military hand, particularly if as they have been doing continue to build up their navy and air craft carrier capabilities, of course the Rafale also comes in a naval variant which the Eurofighter does not.

Now of course all this is not purely down to which is the better air craft, in air to air roles the EF is likely as capable as the Rafale in many aspects, however economic concerns also factor in heavily here, and believe it or not the Rafale as a more mature platform than the EF apparently has the the lower unit price and lifetime maintenance cost. Naturally the Rafale probably would not have won this bid had Nicholas Sarkozy and the French military not decided to take such a decisive and prominent lead operational role in the recent NATO led campaign against Libya in 2011, as besides Afghanistan the Rafale had not seen much action. Unfortunately though, war does pay off, at least for those those who showcase size-able advantage and end up on the victorious side.

The question remains, is France risking anything offering to hand over more sensitive technology then any of the competitors are apparently willing to do? Part of the deal of course is that the Indians plan on squeezing the French for every bit of French technology and aerospace know how possible in the deal. Does France have a technological trump card here or are they truly willing to sell the baby with the bath water to gain some commercial advantage? Or does this strategic partnership between France and India go much further then the mere sale of Rafales and outweigh the short term commercial and geopolitical advantages?

Many analysts believe the deal goes well beyond the aerospace industry, and that France has agreed to a deep and long standing renewed strategic partnership with India as it has been doing in a lesser or greater degree for decades now. Particularly in crucial civilian and military areas where India wants more advanced technological advances then they currently have at their disposal or capacity to catch up in, areas such as as nuclear, submarine, naval and software capacities. This is indeed a pretty good deal for India, but then again, so long as France and the Europeans continue to innovate and develop their technology above and beyond the competition which these contracts will supposedly financially permit, why should the sellers be worried? It’s not as if Europe and India are going to war anytime soon is it? India definitely seems like the most logical strategic partner when compared to most in the region today.

Still, despite being the strongest critics of the deal today, many of these same critics inadvertently back the French commercial position in terms of “maintaining their edge” and would likely do the same to bring home the sale, claiming that India is effectively buying obsolete technology that the French themselves were potentially planning on dumping where the “best before date” is just only now in its prime and expiry is only a decade or two around the corner. In a couple decades from now though, will that technology effectively be expired? Will France and Europe have something far better in production by then?

No matter the case, in reality India was only bidding on 4th generation fighters for cost reasons, the same fourth gen fighters the West have had for over two decades now, of course the 5th generations fighters are truly only in their test phases and nothing has truly been proven yet. Considering the Rafale’s would be replacing India’s aging old school (and I mean “super old school”) Russian Migs, I think they’ve definitely taken a massive step forward in modernization and are ushering a whole new geopolitical era into the region. Let’s wait and see though if this potentially massive deal will be closed or if some corrupt Indian political bribery will come into the picture last minute and blow the whole thing off course for the Indian Air Force.