NEW DELHI (GDC) — India is set to get the first batch of four to six Rafale fighters, which armed with the Meteor air-to-air missiles and Scalp cruise missiles constitute a formidable weapon system. The batch is expected by the end of July.
India has asked France to speed up the delivery schedule of the 36 Rafales, under the Rs 59,000 crore deal inked in September 2016, amid the ongoing troop confrontation in eastern Ladakh with China.
Pilots who have been trained in France, are likely to flew Rafale aircraft and touch down at the Ambala air base on July 27 after a stopover at the Al Dhafra air base near Abu Dhabi. The omni-role fighters are likely to undergo mid-air refueling through IL-78 tanker aircraft of IAF during their flight from UAE to India.
The deliveries of the Meteor missiles, which with a strike range upto 250-km can outgun any missile unleashed by Pakistani or Chinese jets, and the over 300-km range Scalp air-to-ground cruise missiles have already begun, said sources.
As per the original delivery schedule, the first four Rafales were to reach Ambala by May this year, with all the 36 jets arriving by April 2022. Though the delivery of the first four Rafales got delayed a little by the Covid-19 pandemic, India has now asked France to compress the entire delivery schedule, given the heightened tensions with China.
The Rafales will significantly add to the qualitative edge over the People’s Liberation Army-Air Force (PLAAF) along the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control.
An IAF induction team of pilots, engineers and technicians has been undergoing training since last year in France, which has so far handed almost 10 Rafales to India there. Defence minister Rajnath Singh had visited France to formally accept the first fighter at Merignac in the Bordeaux region on October 8.
As reported by TOI earlier, 18 Rafales each will be deployed at the Ambala (17 Golden Arrows squadron) and Hasimara (101 Falcons squadrons) air bases for the western and eastern fronts with Pakistan and China.
The operational dynamics for achieving “air dominance” will change with the induction of the Rafales armed with the Meteor beyond visual range (BVR) missiles, which are powered by Ramjet engines to fly at Mach 4 speeds.
The Meteor missiles are arguably the best in the world for air combat duels, with “a greater no-escape zone” for hostile fighters than any comparable BVR weapon. Pakistan and China do not currently have any missile of this class in their combat inventories.
The Rafales, with a combat range of 780-km to 1,650-km depending on mission, come armed with a deadly weapons package, advanced avionics, radars and electronic warfare systems to prevent jamming by adversaries and ensure superior survivability in hostile contested airspace.
Each Rafale, for instance, can also carry two fire-and-forget Scalp cruise missiles to hit high-value fortified targets well over 300-km away. But the 13 India-Specific Enhancements (ISEs) or upgrades on the 36 Rafales will become fully operational only by October 2022 after undergoing “software certification” after all the jets have arrived in India.
The upgrades range from radar enhancements, Israeli helmet-mounted displays and low-band jammers to towed decoy systems, 10-hour flight data recording and engine capability for “cold start” from high-altitude regions like Ladakh.
They also include Israeli litening pods for target acquisition and guidance kits for Spice precision-guided munitions, which were used to bomb the JeM facility at Balakot in Pakistan on February 26 last year.
© 2020, GDC. © GDC and www.globaldefensecorp.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to www.globaldefensecorp.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Be the first to comment