India approved Acquisition of French advanced Missile Systems

India on 4 January 2012 approved 6600 crore rupees acquisition of 490 French advanced missile systems to arm the Mirage-2000 fighter jets.  The Cabinet Committee on Security cleared the contract for the fire and forget MICA with French armament company MBDA. MICA are interception and aerial combat missiles.

The MICA systems will be fitted on IAF’s 51 Mirage-2000s. French company Dassault Aviation will help in the upgradation of IAF’s 51 Mirage-2000s. The Mirage upgrade project will cost around 20000 crore rupees. The project will be completed in 10 years.


In fact, India plans to induct stealth FGFA (Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft) from 2020 onwards with cooperation from Russia. This defence project is considered to be the biggest-ever defence project and it will cost approximately 35 billion US dollars.