NEW DELHI: French major Safran Aircraft Systems on Wednesday announced the construction of a new MRO (maintenance, repair, overhaul) shop at Hyderabad dedicated for the M88 turbofan engines of Rafale fighter jets.This comes shortly after aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation also tied up with Tata Advanced Systems Limited to manufacture fuselage of Rafale fighters at Hyderabad, as part of the overall Rs 63,887 crore (almost Euro 7 billion) contract inked by India in April to acquire 26 maritime variants of the omni-role jets. The inter-governmental deal, under which the 26 Rafale-M jets will be delivered in the 2028-2030 timeframe, had included the setting up of a production facility for fuselages as well as MRO facilities for aircraft engines, sensors and weapons in India, as reported by TOI earlier.In a statement, Safran said the MRO site will be the first one to maintain M88 modules outside France. “The MRO shop will have a capacity of 600 plus modules per year and will generate up to 150 jobs by 2040 and will help meet the strong growth of M88 maintenance activities worldwide,” it said.With the IAF first inducting 36 Rafales for Rs 59,000 crore and then the 26 Rafale-M jets for the Navy, the French fighter is considered to also be the frontrunner in the long-pending project to manufacture 114 multi-role fighter aircraft (MRFA) with foreign collaboration in India, which was initially estimated to cost Rs 1.25 lakh crore and is now being fast-tracked.
