The arrival of three more Rafales on this Wednesday evening flying directly from the Istres Air Base in France has taken the number of Rafales in service to 14.
The first Rafale squadron is based in Ambala air force station and the second one is likely to come up in West Bengal, as India is expected to get more Rafale jets in next few months.
The Rafale contract that was unnecesssarily mired in political controversies over various issues, has once again shown as to why procurement of weapon systems in India is an uphill task and therefore its not surprising that Indian armed forces has been left to guard the Indian frontiers and fight the enemy with obsolete military equipment. Be it Indian Navy or Indian army or IAF, all are struggling to keep themselves modern. This has been the condition when India for last almost 30 years been fighting a proxy war with Pakistan and China kept nibbling our territory and Both these inimical powers have been modernising themselves.
Like any other technology, weapon technology also under goes rapid changes. If our DRDO takes 10-20 years to develop systems whose requirements and specifications were given 10 years back by the armed forces the chances are that by the time the system under goes trials and is OKAYED it might have already become outdated and obsolete. And your enemy might have procured a better and latest weapon system. This is what has happened with ARJUN Tank which costed 25000 crores in its development since almost 30 years, Indian army by then had to inorder to plug the gap go in for T90 Russian tanks because Pakis had acquired M1 Abrahams from USA. Surprisingly even after 30 years The DRDO could equip only two tank regiments i.e. 90 tanks.
As each procurement becomes a controversy, the IAF could not get a much needed fighter aircraft for last 30 years or so. We live in a dangerous neigbourhood, where crisis like Kargil, Dokhlam and recently Galwan/Ladakh can come unannounced and so a shortfall of almost 10 Squadrons (IAF currently has 32 Squadrons against the sancioned 42 squadrons) can prove to be disastrous , if India has to fight the Chinese and its vassal state ; Pakistan simultaneously.
In view of the above, the speedy induction of Rafales was an urgent necessity to keep Indian skies safe. The Rafles have given IAF much needed strike capability.
as this is one of the finest Fighter aircrafts in the business today.
Its main features are illustrated below ;
One. Rafale is a fourth-generation jet with both twin generation engines and Delta-wing. This fighter jet also carries semi-stealth capabilities that can execute nuclear attacks.
Two. It is equipped with Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile. The range of this is more than 150 kilometers. implying, it can shoot down a Pakistani plane from within Indian border. The game-changing missile on-board the Rafale is the Meteor air-to-air missile, which costs aprox 20 crore.
Neither Pakistan nor China possess a weapon as deadly as the Meteor.
Three. With its avionics, radars and weapon systems, this is one of the most potent aircrafts in the world, much ahead of the F-16s that Pakistan uses or even the JF-20, the 5th generation stealth aircraft of China, which is yet to see combat.
Four. The Rafale will also be equipped with MICA missile ; the multi-mission air to air missile system which has a high level of tactical flexibility inorder to meet the most demanding operational requirments.MICA has a totally dual role. It is able to cope with both BVR and SR combat situations and exhibits very high performance in both situations. The weapon covers Beyond Visual Range situations and in addition offers 2 guidance systems with its 2 interoperable seekers:MICA outperforms other BVR missiles with its unique stealthy interception capability provided by its silent seeker.The weapon covers Beyond Visual Range situations and in addition offers 2 guidance systems with its 2 interoperable seekers:RF MICA with radar seeker providing all weather shoot-up / shoot down capability. IR MICA with dual waveband imaging infrared seeker surpassing latest generation AAM missiles.
- Three. Combat Radius is 3 thousand 700 kilometers.
- Four. Its long-range air-to-ground stand-off cruise missile has a 600-km range and is known for its precision. The Rafale will not have to cross the Indian airspace to hit a target that is about 600 km in enemy territory.
- Five. Rafale can lift one and a half times more weight than its weight while Chinese J-20 can lift 1.2 times. That is, Rafale can carry more weapons and fuel with it.
- Conclusion.
- Most powerful fighter jets from China and Pakistan do not match Rafale's capabilities and it is this reason why Pakistan , already under economic stress is complaining of an arms race in the subcontinent.
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The IAF is also upgrading all aircrafts in its current inventory to make up for the shortfall. The Jaguar, Mirage-2000, MiG-29 fighters are all being upgraded and negotiations are on with Russia for a major upgrade of the Su-30MKI fleet. There is also a plan to induct Tejas at the soonest, However,It is unlikely that India will be able to fill this enormous gap of 10 squadrons anytime sooner than 2030.
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In such a scenario, having 36x Rafales with aforementioned armoury would give India a better a chance to respond quickly and surely as it did at Balakot.
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