India will procure 500 air-to-air missiles from a French firm for IAF's Mirage 2000 aircraft fleet. The Cabinet Committee on Security meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, today cleared the 950 million Euro deal to procure MICA missiles manufactured by French firm, MBDA.

The missiles would be deployed on the 51 Mirage 2000 aircraft. These aircraft are already undergoing upgrades at French facilities under a 1.47 billion Euro deal signed earlier this year. Defence Minister A K Antony recently informed Parliament that the upgrade of the aircraft is expected to be completed by mid 2021.

Two aircraft have already been flown to France for upgrades and the remaining would be modernised in India at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited facilities. Under the deal, MBDA will have to do offsets worth 30 per cent of the deal, meaning that they will have to invest 315 million Euros back in the Indian defence sector.