India has decided to keep Mirage-2000 fighters in service after 2035. Instead of new aircraft, the country plans to purchase decommissioned aircraft of this model from France and use them as donors for spare parts and structural elements, IDRW agency reports.

The Indian Air Force plans to dismantle the aircraft for usable components, including landing gear, hydraulic elements, and fuselage sections, to maintain its own fleet.

The reason is a shortage of fighter squadrons and slow fleet modernization, the agency claims.

Deliveries of new Tejas Mk1A will gradually increase, while more advanced Tejas Mk2 and the prospective AMCA will require several more years. Therefore, the service life of Indian Mirage-2000s may be extended until 2038–2039.

It should be noted that such investments by India, in parallel with the development of its own AMCA fighter, effectively put an end to the idea of purchasing Su-57s from Russia. Indian media, meanwhile, reported on Russia's offer to transfer a small batch of 5th-generation fighters to assess their flight characteristics.