This afternoon, the first five French Rafale fighter jets of a batch acquired by the Indian Air Force (IAF) are set to touch down at India’s Ambala airbase in Haryana, joining the IAF fleet’s No. 17 Squadron, the “Golden Arrows”. Chief of Air Staff RKS Bhadauria will be present at the base to receive the jets, which mark India’s first large-scale acquisition of foreign fighters in the past two decades.
Flying in from France on a 7,000 km journey, Rafale aircraft are considered to be some of the finest jets in the world, described as ‘omnirole’ planes that can undertake several missions in a single flight, including air defence and superiority, reconnaissance, ground and sea attack, and nuclear strike deterrence. In a video that went viral yesterday, the planes were captured refuelling mid-air at 30,000 feet from a French Airbus 330.
Indian Air Force appreciates the support provided by French Air Force for our Rafale journey back home. @Armee_de_lair @Indian_Embassy @Dassault_OnAir #Rafale#IndianAirForce pic.twitter.com/7Ec8oqOJmr
— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) July 28, 2020
In 2016, the Indian government signed a highly controversial deal to acquire 36 Rafale jets from French aircraft manufacturer Dassault, estimated at INR 59,000 crores (€7.87 billion). The first jet handed over to Indian officials in France last October, with tail number RB 001, will be the last to arrive since all integration and testing is to be done on it. Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was criticized for performing a Hindu shastra puja ritual on the jet when he received it last year.
At the Ambala base, which is located around 200 km from the Pakistan border, security has been heavily tightened with the imposition of Section 144 in the surrounding villages restricting gatherings and filmography of the landing. A local minister has also urged citizens to ‘light candles’ to welcome the fighter jets. The jets stopped for a single overnight halt at United Arab Emirates’ Al-Dhafra airbase, the northwest of which is operated by France. At the same time, the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard reportedly launched missiles to target a mock US aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz. The drill put the Al-Dhafra and Al-Udeid bases on high alert.
Calling the Rafale jet acquisition a “game-changer”, Former Air Chief Marshal (Retd.) BS Dhanoa, the principal architect of the February 2019 Balakot airstrikes, told Hindustan Times that the Rafale’s e-warfare suite Meteor and SCALP air to ground weapons systems, which can track terrain movements, could outgun any threat produced by the Chinese Air Force, given the ongoing conflict at the Line of Actual Control and the concentration of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) forces at the Tibetan Plateau. In the context of a war scenario, Dhanoa said that China has 70 aircraft without protection at its Hotan airbase, which could be easily destroyed by the Rafales.
While recognizing the threats posed by Chinese J-20 fifth-generation fighters, Dhanoa stressed his confidence in the Rafales and the IAF’s Su-30 MKI crafts, stating that they will easily be able to counter any Chinese offensive in a worst-case scenario. “Chinese Air Threat is mainly from their Surface to Air Missile Systems,” he said, which the Rafales would be able to detect immediately.