Rafale to fly back to France for first overseas exercise.

India’s omni-role French fighter aircraft, Rafale, will be flying back to home country France for a multilateral air exercise in which the US, UK and host of other countries are also participating. This will be the first time that Rafale fighter jets are flying back to France after being inducted in the Indian Air Force (IAF) in Oct '19 amid ongoing tensions with China along LAC.

An IAF contingent will depart tomorrow (Friday) for France, to participate in Exercise Orion at Mont-de-Marsan, an Air Force base of the French Air and Space Force (FASF), informed IAF Spokesperson, Wing Commander Ashish Moghe in an official statement.

The French exercise will be conducted from 17 April to 05 May 2023, with the IAF Contingent comprising four Rafale, two C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft, two ll-78 (refueller) aircraft and 165 air warriors. This would be the first overseas exercise for the IAF's Rafale aircraft.

 

Besides the IAF and the FASF, Air Forces from Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Spain and the United States of America would also be flying in this multilateral exercise. Participation in this exercise would further enrich the employment philosophy of the India Air Force, by imbibing the best practices from other Air Forces, said IAF in the official statement.

India had purchased 36 Rafale fighter jets from France in the year 2016 through an inter-governmental deal. The first Rafale fighter jet had landed in India in the year 2019 though. All the 36 Rafale aircraft have been handed over by Dassault Aviation to India. India has deployed one squadron of Rafale fighter jets at Ambala air base (around 125Kms from Delhi) close to both Chinese & Pakistan borders. Another squadron of Rafale have been deployed at Hashimara air base in the state of West Bengal along the disputed border (Line of Actual Control) with China, close to both Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. One squadron consists of 18 aircraft.