New Delhi, July 14: When contingents from the Indian armed forces led the Bastille Day parade in the Champs Elysees this morning, France was according India a rare honour.

France’s charm offensive is not without reason: India’s armed forces hold out the possibility of billions of euros worth of orders for France’s military industrial complex.

France lost out on two major deals that it thought it was close to clinching.

In 2007, the defence ministry cancelled a tender for 197 helicopters for the Indian Air Force, an order that Eurocopter, with France and Germany in the lead, was convinced it was winning by edging out the US’s Bell Textron. Two years earlier, after protracted negotiations, India awarded the contract for 66 Hawk advanced jet trainers to British Aerospace. France’s Alphajet was an early competitor in the race but tardy Indian procedures edged it out.

History repeated itself when Dassault Aviation decided in 2006 that it could not keep its assembly line for the Mirage 2000-V open in anticipation of an Indian order that may or may not materialise.

The liberalisation of Indian defence procurement policies means that there are more orders for which France can bid, even as France seeks to build on traditional ties it has. But France is also noting the orders that Russia and the US have won without going through an open tender process.

French companies have been expecting that an order to upgrade the IAF’s fleet of Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft — a favourite of Indian fighter pilots — that has been in the works for more than two years now would be contracted during the Prime Minister’s visit.

The order could be worth more than $2 billion (Rs 10,000 crore), generating business for French majors Dassault Aviation and Thales. The Mirage 2000, that the IAF used in air-to-ground attacks in the 1999 Kargil war, are of French origin.

But the French are facing stiff competition from Israeli firms to upgrade the aircraft’s avionics and weapon systems to extend service life by another 20 years. Defence secretary Vijay Singh, who is a member of the Prime Minister’s delegation to France, was widely expected to lead the negotiations and clinch an agreement this time. Singh is now headed back to India. A defence delegation from France, too, is expected.

Other orders that France is expecting from India are:

Coastal security software and hardware. Last month, Indian coast guard and navy officers visited France that is using its system of Napoleonic coastal fortresses networked with an EADS (European Aeronautic Defence & Space Company) system called Spationav.

In 2005, India contracted six Scorpene submarines for $3 billion. Three are to be delivered by France (DCN Thales) fully made and three are to be made in Mazgaon Docks under transfer of technology.

The project is delayed. The submarines are to be delivered between 2010 and 2015.

Reports speak of the possibility of a delay in the transfer of technology. In that event, prices could escalate and France may ask for a renegotiation. India is renegotiating the Gorshkov aircraft carrier deal with Russia.

The IAF wants to buy the Airbus A330 multi-role tanker transport (MRTT) instead of the Russian-built Ilyushin-78 air-to-air tanker. But the cabinet committee on security has not yet decided, unsure whether it is wise to irk the Russians.

The Ilyushin and Airbus platform were competing for the tender announced by the ministry of defence three years ago, consisting of six mid-air tanker aircraft worth nearly $1 billion. France wants India to issue the contract soonest.

The biggest of them all — the order for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft for the IAF that could total as much as $12 billion. France is aggressively marketing the Rafale (Dassault). It is in competition with the F-16 Super Viper (Lockheed, US), F-18 Super Hornet (Boeing, US), MiG35 (RSK MiG Corp, Russia), Eurofighter Typhoon (EADS, European Consortium excluding France) and JAS 39 Gripen (Saab Gripen, Sweden).

The governments are lobbying to win the order through diplomatic leverage. France’s plus point — it did not sanction India after the 1998 nuclear tests. Also Dassault, the maker of the Rafale, has a long-standing relationship with the IAF.