NEW DELHI: Defence minister Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday that Rafale fighter jets will be inducted into the Indian Air Force in a span of two years.

Manohar Parrikar hailed the government's decision to directly purchase 36 Rafale fighter jets and said that "India has finally broken the ice over the deal which has been pending for the last 17 years."

"Rafale fighter deal is a great decision taken on the terms and conditions that are better," Parrikar added.

A breakthrough in the much-delayed process of buying Rafale jets was reached on Friday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India will buy 36 Rafale jets from France in flyaway condition soon, citing "critical operational necessity".

The decision is among the several agreements reached between the two countries after his meeting with French President Francois Hollande in Paris.

"Keeping in view the critical operational necessity of fighter aircrafts in India, I have spoken with the (French) president for buying 36 Rafale jets in fly-away condition as soon as possible," Modi said while addressing the media jointly with the French president.

Modi said these jets will be bought under an agreement between the two governments.

He added that officials from both sides will discuss terms and conditions of the deal in details and take it forward.

Modi also said defence cooperation with France has been enhanced and the two countries would work together in manufacturing defence equipment and developing technology.

The "politico-strategic" decision of negotiating the direct purchase of 36 Rafale jets that was taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi just before he left for Paris on Thursday afternoon, will lead to a "modification" of the original deadlocked $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project for 126 fighters, said sources.

As reported by TOI earlier, final negotiations for the MMRCA project — which envisaged direct acquisition of the first 18 jets from France with the remaining 108 being built in India by Hindustan Aeronautics after transfer of technology — have been stalled for over a year now. France, incidentally, has failed to find international customers for its Rafale fighters, except for Egypt which agreed to buy 24 of them in February.

The insurmountable hurdle in the MMRCA negotiations was Dassault's substantial hike in pricing for the 108 fighters to be produced by HAL as well as its refusal to take "full responsibility" for them. India, in turn, was clear it could not accept a hike in the L-1 (lowest bidder) price provided by Dassault since it had led Rafale to defeat the Eurofighter Typhoon in commercial evaluation in January 2012.

Down to just 34 fighter squadrons when at least 44 are required to be comfortable against China and Pakistan, IAF can now hope to get 36 new fighters soon to arrest its fast-eroding air combat power.