According to Surendra Singh of TOI, India has completed the Letter of Request (LoR) for the purchase of the 4.5-generation multirole aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF), bringing the country one step closer to the massive defence agreement for 114 Rafale fighter jets with France.
Defence sources informed TOI that "the LoR is ready and it is expected to be sent to France in a few weeks." Under international frameworks like foreign military sales or intergovernmental agreements, the LoR is a formal government-to-government document used to start significant defence acquisitions. The massive purchase was originally estimated to be worth approximately Rs 3.25 lakh crore.

Nearly 90 of the 114 fighter jets under the proposed agreement will be produced in India thanks to a collaboration between an Indian company and the French aerospace company Dassault Aviation under the Make-in-India program. It is anticipated that France would deliver the remaining 24 aircraft in fly-away condition. It is anticipated that the jets will have around 50% indigenous material.
A P Singh, the commander of the IAF, is expected to travel to France in early June, well before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's G7 Summit visit from June 15–17. Singh's visit is anticipated to give the massive agreement its final push.Following price discussions and Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approval, the final deal is expected to be inked by the end of this year.
The Indian Navy is separately purchasing 26 Rafale Marine aircraft from Dassault Aviation for carrier operations in addition to the agreement for 114 Rafale aircraft. This transaction was struck on April 28 of last year. 36 Rafales that were purchased under the September 2016 intergovernmental agreement are now in use by the IAF.

The goal of India's Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) program, which calls for the purchase of 114 fighter jets, is to close the IAF's critical capability gap and halt the fighter squadrons' decline, which has fallen to 29 from the ideal 42.5 squadrons needed to successfully combat a two-front threat from China and Pakistan.
India is pressuring Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to expedite Tejas aircraft deliveries under the two current contracts with the IAF, while Pakistan is pursuing plans to purchase forty J-35 fifth-generation fighter fighters. Rajesh Kumar Singh, the defence secretary, had earlier stated that the government was optimistic that HAL will deliver ten Tejas Mk-1A fighter jets during the current fiscal year.

The government's urgent need for a stealth platform has once again highlighted Russia's Sukhoi Su-57, as the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) is only anticipated to be completed and put into service by 2035.
Three domestic private-sector candidates for prototype development and manufacture have been selected by the government for the AMCA program: Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL), a consortium headed by Larsen & Toubro (L&T), and another consortium headed by Bharat Forge.