New Delhi: The next batch of three Rafale jets will arrive in Ambala on November 5 directly from the Bordeaux-Merignac facility and there will be no stop as they will be fuelled mid-air, A senior government official said on Tuesday.
Five Rafale jets already flew to the Ambala airbase via Abu Dhabi on July 29 and have already been inducted into the IAF’s Squadron 17. Seven Rafale fighters are already being used for IAF fighter pilot training in France.
As per the information, India will receive three more Rafele jets in January 2021, another three Rafale in March and Seven jets will come to India in April 2021. It means the Indian Air force will have 21 Rafale jets till April 2021.
Three can be sent to the Hashimara airbase in north Bengal’s Alipurduar to counter the threat posed by China on the eastern front. All the fighters are equipped with Mica and Meteor air-to-air missiles along with Scalp air-to-ground cruise missiles. India has now requested Safran for the air-to-ground modular weapon known as Hammer with a 250kg warhead.
Official from India said that France is willing to offer more Rafale fighters to India. Safran’s offer of making the Snecma M88 engines in India four years from the day the contract is signed, is a welcome proposal.
Not only will the M-88 engines be used by Rafale fighters but these can also be deployed to power Light Combat Aircraft Mark II and twin-engine advanced multi-role combat aircraft developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
The IAF plans to buy 83 LCA Mark-IA jets, taking the total number of Tejas variants ordered to 123. Safran is said to be willing to offer engines with no third-country spare parts so that no additional approvals are needed and with 100% indigenisation.
The Foreign secretary of India – Harsh Shringla is visiting France, the UK and Germany this week and the French offer may come up for discussion. DRDO can continue developing its own fighter engine and the Safran engine will fill the gap between development and manufacture.
Nowadays, Only Russia, the US and France are capable to produce fighter jet engines. China is still using the Russian RD-93 and RD-33 engines to power its jet fighters such as the J-31 and the JF-17.
_Vinayak.Barot