Four Rafale fighters of the French Air Force will participate in joint exercises with the Indian Air Force’s Golden Arrows Squadron that was resurrected in September last with the induction of the Rafale fighter jets. The exercises have been scheduled between 19 and 25 January in Rajasthan, people familiar with the matter told Hindustan Times.
The French air force’s Rafales will be accompanied by the Airbus A330 multi-role tanker transport aircraft (MRTT) for aerial refuelling support. The four fighters will also participate in joint exercises with the Australian Air Force before reaching India.
The wargames, named Exercise Skyros, will take place over the air force firing range in Rajasthan’s Pokhran that had seen Indian Air Force fighters participate in Exercise Vayu Shakti. The 2019 exercise was designed to let the pilots practise and showcase the IAF’s ability to strike targets including radars and enemy convoys on the ground.
The joint exercises are expected to focus on interoperability, low flying over the desert and manoeuvrability of the omni role fighters. The exercises involving the Rafales - which would be India’s frontline fighter in case of conflict in East Ladakh or elsewhere - are being held weeks after Chinese and Pakistani air force carried out joint exercises near India’s western border.
Exercise Skyros will be the first joint exercise involving the Indian Air Force’s Rafale fighter jets and is cited as another example of the deepening military ties between the two countries, a senior Indian military officer said.
The Indian Air Force has inducted 11 of the 36 Rafale jets ordered by New Delhi at a cost of Rs 59,000 crore. Seven more fighters have been handed over to India by Dassault but these are being used for training IAF pilots in France. The third batch of three fighter jets is scheduled to land on January 27.
A top Indian Air Force officer said there was a possibility that the three Rafale jets could, logistics permitting, fly together with the French Air Force’s four fighters and the Airbus A300 MRTT.
India is also considering a French proposal to acquire six Airbus 330 multi-role transport tanker aircraft on a government-to-government basis for expanding the strike capability of the Indian Air Force (IAF). The mid-air refuelers can be turned into purely a tanker or transport or air ambulance or all three at the same time with a total crew of three. Else, it can transport 260 personnel in the cabin and fuel in the cargo hold.
A senior IAF official had earlier described the French proposal as a win-win for the Indian air force and France.
