The defence acquisition council (DAC) approved the Indian Navy’s plans to purchase 26 Rafale M aircraft and three submarines from France on July 13, the day that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi began a two-day visit to France. It was expected that official announcements regarding the agreements would be made during the visit.

The people, who spoke on condition of anonymity, cautioned against reading too much into the absence of the two agreements from the 25-year road map issued on July 14 at the conclusion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit. According to them, India is “very clear” regarding the acquisition of Rafale M aircraft and Scorpene submarines.

Before final contracts are signed, entities on both parties, including French firms and the Indian defence ministry’s department of procurement, will negotiate the technical and commercial aspects of the deals, according to the people.

On July 6, France’s Naval Group and India’s state-owned Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) inked a framework memorandum of understanding (MoU) regarding the construction of three Scorpene submarines in India. In January, Naval Group and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) signed a second agreement for the installation of air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems on submarines.

This will be a follow-up order to an earlier contract in which MDL built six Scorpene or Kalvari-class submarines with technology from Naval Group as part of a 23,562 crore Project-75 programme.

Since the original contract was signed in 2005, additional price negotiations are necessary, according to the sources.

The agreements for Rafale M jets and Scorpene submarines are on track, though the two parties must negotiate pricing, delivery date, and the “Make in India” component, according to the sources.

The combined value of the two deals is estimated to be between €9 billion and €10 billion, although the ultimate price will be determined following complex negotiations between India and France.

People sought to differentiate between General Electric and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) decision to manufacture GE F-414 jet engines in India for the Light Combat Aircraft Mark 2 and France’s Safran Group and DRDO’s plans to jointly develop a new engine to power India’s next-generation advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA).

In the case of the GE F-414, the Indian side is procuring a 1970s-era engine and will produce 80% of it domestically, but will not have access to 20% of it, including “very critical technology,” according to the sources. They stated that Safran Group intends to collaborate with DRDO to develop a custom engine that satisfies AMCA’s specific requirements.

ALSO READ : Pakistan forced to outsource Islamabad Airport due forex crises

This is consistent with France’s intentions to co-design the next generation of military equipment with India, as opposed to merely transferring technology. The Indian side will be able to export this new engine and will be in a position to independently develop the next iteration of engines, according to the sources.

The post ‘Negotiations on’: Why India-France didn’t announce fresh Rafale and Scorpene deals appeared first on Republic Aeon.

On the margins of Modi’s trip to France for their national July 14 celebrations, Hyderabad-based firms Skyroot Aerospace and Dhruva Space announced respective launches.

According to a statement released by the French government, Dhruva Space, a manufacturer of end-to-end satellite infrastructure, and Kineis, a new satellite operator providing worldwide connectivity for Internet of Things (IoT), are discussing the possibility of launching a satellite together.

Skyroot Aerospace, a manufacturer of launch vehicles, recently made public its interest in launching with the French space company Promethee to expand the latter’s JAPETUS earth observation satellite constellation.

The long history of cooperation between India and France in space endeavours, dating back to the 1960s, is reflected in this latest breakthrough. As part of an Indian CEO team that met with Modi and Macron in France, both Skyroot Aerospace and Agnikul Cosmos were there as further proof.

Speaking with President Emmanuel Macron and our Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the CEO forum in Paris was a tremendous privilege. AgniKul Cosmos aspires to maintain the same level of French influence that is so intrinsic to discussions on the Indian Space Programme. “There is a lot of work to be done, and I’m excited to collaborate with our French counterparts on this journey to space,” said Srinath Ravichandran, CEO and co-founder of Agnikul Cosmos.

Also read : India and the UAE will make a plan to settle deals in their own currencies.

Upcoming launches

Earlier this year, Dhruva Space and Kineis, a satellite IoT domain oeprator based in France, inked a memorandum of understanding to jointly launch a satellite.

According to a press release from France’s space agency, Centre National D’etudes Spatiales (CNES), France and India’s first joint effort in the satellite IoT sector was the 2007 building of an oceanography satellite equipped with CNES’s Agros instrument.

As of recently, Kineis is also the Argos instrument operator for the 2022 joint Oceansat-3/Argos mission.

In order to improve Kineis’ worldwide IoT connection, the firms have announced today that they will be working together on a combined technological and commercial space initiative. This collaboration will “extend deployment of solutions worldwide, and particularly in India, for such crucial applications as smart agriculture and fishing, wildfire prevention, humanitarian convoy and wildlife tracking, monitoring of energy networks and infrastructures, transport tracking and logistics,” CNES said in a press release.

According to Sanjay Nekkanti, CEO and co-founder of Dhruva Space, “We see this partnership as one of the fruits borne of the hard work of two growing Space countries united by a common vision of the prowess of satellites.”

Launch options for Skyroot include the French space business Promethee, which produces nanosatellite constellations for earth monitoring.

As part of the JAPETUS earth observation constellation deployment, (Prométhée) and Skyroot Aerospace have chosen to investigate the possibility of using Skyroot’s Vikram launcher. According to a press statement issued by Prométhée, conversations were led by Skyroot’s co-founder and CEO Pawan Kumar Chandana and Prométhée’s president, Olivier Piepsz.

The post The Modi-Macron meeting opens the door for Indian space tech entrepreneurs to collaborate with French counterparts. appeared first on Republic Aeon.

The naval version of the SCALP missile has a range of over one thousand kilometres when launched from a submarine and up to fourteen hundred kilometres when launched from a warship. The subsonic cruise missile is propelled by a turbojet and remains subsurface while approaching the target before ascending into the air and destroying any potential enemy threat on the ground. The French Navy has been using the missile on its frigates since 2017 and on its submarines of the Barracuda class beginning in 2022. After minor modifications to the torpedo tubes, the missile can also be used on Scorpene-class submarines.

While Indian Navy officials and diplomats have observed the performance of the Naval SCALP in France, it is believed that the missile manufacturer is willing to produce the cruise weapon in India in accordance with the “Make in India” initiative. The decision to construct three additional submarines at MDL was made because the complete process for the Indian Navy’s Project 75 I will take at least 15 years. In 1999, when Atal Bihari Vajapee was the prime minister and George Fernandes was the defence minister, the decision was made to produce six Scorpene (Kalveri)-class submarines. This allows us to estimate the delay. The sixth submarine will be delivered to the Indian Navy in 2024, a quarter century after Prime Minister Vajpayee’s Cabinet Committee on Security approved the 30-year submarine programme.

Given the rapid expansion of the Chinese Navy, which is expected to patrol the waters of the Indian Ocean by 2025, the Indian Navy has no choice but to counter the PLAN challenge in the Indo-Pacific, as it cannot allow Beijing to control the sea lanes from the Gulf of Aden to the South China Sea with the assistance of India’s former bitter rival Pakistan.

From the content of bilateral ties with France, it is evident that PM Modi’s visit will catapult the strategic relationship into high motion, with President Emmanuel Macron and his companies merely waiting for India to request the technology it desires.

ALSO READ :One killed, four injured after Russia carries out ‘massive’ overnight attack on Kyiv

Politically, it is quite intriguing that the US and France have offered PM Modi a state visit on the eve of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, whereas they offered the same to UPA Prime Minister Manmohan Singh immediately after the Congress won 206 seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The fact that both President Biden and President Macron have honoured Prime Minister Modi demonstrates their confidence in the Indian leader in 2024.

Both Biden and Macron have close personal relationships with Prime Minister Modi, who prefers to speak his mind without compromising India’s strategic autonomy, be it on the Ukraine conflict or China’s expansion.

The post France offers SCALP missiles with three Scorpene subs. appeared first on Republic Aeon.

The Hotel has been around for a long time, since the 1800s. In 1862, the governments of Switzerland and France agreed to change the border in the Valley of the Dappes. On December 8, 1862, the Treaty of Dappes was signed. The treaty said that the change in the border would not affect any building that was already there at the time it was signed. According to the hotel’s website, a businessman named Monsieur Ponthus took advantage of this by building a building in an area of their property that was on both sides of the new border. He did this so he could do business across the new border.

They also say that the building was finished before the treaty became law in February 1863. When the Swiss government signed the treaty, the three-story building was already done, so it was not affected by the new border. Mr. Ponthus opened a bar on the French side and a store on the Swiss side. The shop was there until 1921, when Mr. Ponthus’s son, Jules-Jean Arbeze, turned it into what is now the Franco-Suisse Hotel.

During World War II, the second floor of the hotel was a safe place for people who were trying to get away from German soldiers. The stairs led to the Swiss side of the border.

According to the website, all of the roomsin hotel have “high-quality bedding with storage, a private bathroom, and free WiFi.” A room for two people costs 89 euros (Rs 7,876), and a room for a family of four costs 129 euros (Rs 11,416). Almost every room in the building is split by the line between the two countries.

Also read: Pakistan struck by countrywide blackout.

There is a small open courtyard that connects the French and Swiss parts of the building. One of the first and most obvious signs of this border is a stone marker from 1863. On one side is the eagle of the Second French Empire. At the time, Napoleon III was in charge of France. On the other side is just the word “Vaud.”

In this hotel, you can sleep in two countries at the same time😲‼️

Half Hotel Arbez is in France and the other half in Switzerland, with the international border seperating the restaurant and several of the rooms. pic.twitter.com/wCRvtHqj4F

— Nzeora (@NzeoraHQ) January 21, 2023

Conde Nast Traveller says that the French-Swiss border runs through the middle of the dining room, dividing it into two parts. The French and Swiss flags are displayed at opposite ends of the room. In some rooms, guests can sleep with their heads in France and their feet in Switzerland.

The bed in the honeymoon suite is also neatly split in half. The bathroom in one room is in the French part of the hotel, but the rest of the room is all Swiss.

The post You can sleep in two different countries on same time at this hotel, See where. appeared first on Republic Aeon.