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France to advance Rafale deliveries after IAF request
New Delhi: Acting on a special request by the Indian Air Force (IAF) to speed up deliveries of Rafale fighter jets in the wake of heightened military tensions along
New Delhi: Acting on a special request by the Indian Air Force (IAF) to speed up deliveries of Rafale fighter jets in the wake of heightened military tensions along the disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, France is reworking the schedule for supplying the planes at a faster pace, people aware of the matter said on Monday.
Six Rafale fighter planes are likely to land at their home base in Ambala on July 27--instead of four that were originally planned to be delivered--as France steps up efforts to meet IAF’s immediate requirements, said one of the persons cited above on condition of anonymity.
An IAF spokesperson declined comment.
India ordered 36 Rafale jets from France worth Rs 59,000 crore in September 2016 as an emergency purchase to arrest the worrying slide in the IAF’s combat capabilities.
“We are aware that around 10 Rafale jets are ready at aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation’s Merignac facility. Preparations are on to fly six Rafale jets to India in July-end with a stopover at Al Dhafra airbase near Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The jets will be flown by Indian pilots,” said a second person, also on condition of anonymity.
All the 10 fighters are not being delivered as some jets are needed in France to train IAF crews, he said.
The French air force will refuel the Indian fighters using its Airbus A330 multi-role tanker transport aircraft on their way to Al Dhafra from where aerial refueling support is expected to be provided by the IAF’s Russian IL-78 refuellers, the second person said.
Experts said accelerating the deliveries of Rafale jets is a significant development amid the ongoing border tensions with China.
“It is good that the Rafale delivery is being expedited as its operationalisation here would get advanced. Since we are in for the long haul on our northern borders, their availability with the IAF would add to its offensive potential,” said Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (retd), additional director general, Centre for Air Power Studies.
Future deliveries of Rafale fighters are also being expedited, said the first person cited above.
According to the original delivery schedule, the first 18 jets (including the four in the first batch) were to be delivered to IAF by February 2021, with the rest expected in April-May 2022. France handed over to India its first Rafale fighters during a ceremony attended by defence minister Rajnath Singh and his French counterpart, Florence Parly, in Merignac on October 8, 2019, which coincided with the IAF’s 87th founding day and the Hindu festival of Dussehra.
IAF has raised its guard to deal with any military provocation by the Chinese forces and forward bases have been ordered to be on their highest state of alert. Apart from Sukhoi-30s and upgraded MiG-29 fighter jets, IAF is operating Apache AH-64E attack helicopters and CH-47F (I) Chinook multi-mission helicopters--both imported from the US--in the region.
IAF and the Indian Army have deployed their air defence systems in eastern Ladakh even as the People Liberation Army-Air Force has activated several of its bases in both Xinjiang and the Tibet Autonomous Region. Chinese fighter jets have regularly been making a show of strength in the Aksai Chin area, as reported by Hindustan Times on Sunday.
Both India and China have significantly reinforced their deployments with fighter jets, helicopters, tanks, heavy artillery and missiles in the region that has garnered extensive global attention in recent weeks, particularly after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley in a scrap with the Chinese along the LAC on June 15. An undisclosed number of Chinese soldiers also died in the clash, the worst between the two countries in 45 years.
