Rajnath Singh to fly Rafale sortie in Paris Oct 8

New Delhi: After Tejas aircraft, defence minister Rajnath Singh will now fly a sortie in a Rafale fighter jet on October 8 from a French airbase to gain first-hand experience of the latest aircraft to be inducted into Indian Air Force (IAF).

Mr Singh will fly the sortie on a two-seater trainer aircraft.

The defence minister will be travelling to Paris on October 7 on a three-day visit to receive the first of 36 Rafale fighter jets.

The ceremony to hand over the first Rafale jet to India will take place on October 8, the foundation day of the Indian Air Force.

“After receiving the aircraft, the defence minister will take a sortie in the aircraft,” said sources.

Last month Mr Singh had flew in the Tejas fighter aircraft from the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) airport in Bengaluru, becoming the first defence minister to fly in the indigenously-built light combat aircraft (LCA).

In July 2017, the then IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa flew a Rafale jet at the Saint-Dizier airbase during his visit to France.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has resurrected its “17 Squadron” also known as “Golden Arrows”, which will be the first squadron to be equipped with the Rafale fighter aircraft.

India is procuring a batch of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France at a cost of '58,000 crore. These will be armed with deadly Meteor missiles considered much better than AMRAAM missile with which Pakistan’s F16 are armed. Pakistan’s Air Force had fired AMRAAM missiles at IAF fighter jets during their failed attempt on February 27 to bomb Indian military installations.

There are some 13 India-specific enhancements (ISE) to be made in the Rafale jet, including Israeli helmet-mounted displays, radar warning receivers, low band jammers, 10-hour flight data recording, infra-red search and tracking systems among others.

The Congress raised several questions about the deal, including on rates of the aircraft, and alleged corruption but the government has rejected the charges.