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Watch: Rafale touches down on Indian land, Defence minister Rajnath Singh shares first visuals of landing
Defence minister Rajnath Singh gave the country a look at the glorious moment by sharing the first visuals of the landing of aircraft in Ambala air base.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday tweeted a video of the touchdown of one of the five Rafale fighter jets at the Indian Air Force’s airbase in Ambala city of Haryana.
The 27-second video of the touchdown showed the jet looming in the horizon before landing safely after covering a distance of nearly 7,000km from the Merignac airbase in French port city of Bordeaux with air-to-air refuelling and a single stop in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“The Touchdown of Rafale at Ambala,” Rajnath Singh tweeted along with the video.
“The Birds have landed safely in Ambala. The touch down of Rafale combat aircrafts in India marks the beginning of a new era in our Military History. These multirole aircrafts will revolutionise the capabilities of the @IAF_MCC,” Singh also posted.
They are the first imported fighter jets to be inducted into the IAF in 22 years after the Russian Sukhoi-30 fighters. The first Su-30 entered IAF service in June 1997.
Group Captain Harkirat Singh, a decorated fighter pilot and the commanding officer of the No 17 Squadron, headed the aircrew bringing the Rafales to India.
“I congratulate the IAF on a professionally executed ferry. I am sure that 17 Squadron, the Golden Arrows, will continue to live upto their motto of “Udayam Ajasram”. I am extremely happy that IAF’s combat capability has got a timely boost,” he added.
The first squadron of the aircraft will be stationed at Ambala air force station, considered one of the most strategically located bases of the IAF. The second squadron of Rafale will be stationed at Hasimara base in West Bengal.
The new Rafale fighters jets will significantly enhance IAF’s offensive capabilities and prove to be a game-changer with their advanced weaponry, defence experts have said. The jet is capable of carrying out a variety of missions — ground and sea attack, air defence and air superiority, reconnaissance and nuclear strike deterrence.
Specially tailored for the IAF, the Rafale jets have cold engine start capability to operate from high-altitude bases including Leh, radar warning receivers, flight data recorders with storage for 10 hours of data, infrared search and track systems, low-band jammers, Israeli helmet-mounted displays and towed decoys to ward off incoming missiles.
The Rafale jets are armed with Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missiles, MICA multi-mission air-to-air missiles and Scalp deep-strike cruise missiles — weapons that will allow fighter pilots to attack air and ground targets from standoff ranges and fill a significant capability gap.
Rafale, categorised as a 4.5 generation aircraft for its radar-evading stealth profile, is important for IAF since most of the aircraft in its fleet, including the Mirage 2000 and the Su-30 MkI, are classified as either third or fourth-generation fighters.
A twin-jet fighter aircraft, Rafale able to operate from both an aircraft carrier and a shore base. The manufacturers describe it as a fully versatile aircraft which can carry out all combat aviation missions to achieve air superiority and air defence, in-depth strikes, reconnaissance, anti-ship strikes and nuclear deterrence.
Out of the 36 Rafale aircraft, 30 will be fighter jets and six will be trainers. India had ordered 36 Rafale fighter jets from France in a deal worth about Rs 60,000 crore in September 2016.
