India’s second consignment of three Rafale fighter jets is scheduled to reach Gujarat’s Jamnagar airbase on Wednesday (November 4).
The three aircraft were scheduled to take off from France in the morning and land in India by evening without any pits stops.
The new planes would add to India’s first batch of five Rafale jets which flew in from France on July 29 after a brief stopover at Al Dhafra airbase near Abu Dhabi. The jets were formally inducted into the Indian Air Force’s fleet at a ceremony in Ambala on September 10. Five other jets are being used in France for training purposes.
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As many as 36 aircraft are expected to reach India by mid-2022 as part of a ₹60,000 crore deal signed by the NDA government in 2016. Of the 36, 30 will be fighter jets, while the rest – two-seaters – will be used for training purposes.
While the first squadron of the fighter jets will be stationed at the Ambala air base, the second one will be stationed at Hasimara base in West Bengal.
The first batch of aircraft have already been deployed in Ladakh where Indian is engaged in a border conflict with China.
The jets resurrected the Number 17 Golden Arrows squadron of the IAF.
The fighter jets are India’s first major purchase in 23 years after the acquisition of Sukhoi jets from Russia.
Rafale jets, built by French aerospace major Dassault Aviation are unique for their precision strikes and air-superiority.
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The 4.5 Generation Rafale twin-engine fighter jets can perform a number of actions at the same time including attacking air-borne and ground targets from a distance.
A Rafale can also carry a range of potent weapons while its arsenal contains European missile maker MBDA’s Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile – a revolutionary technique in air-to-air combat – and Scalp cruise missile, which has a range of over 300 km.