Rafale Fighter Jet: Air Force fleet to include ‘Rafale’, deployment at Ambala airbase

India came on July 29

The first batch of 5 Rafale aircraft arrived in India from France on 29 July. The Modi government has signed a deal with the French government for the purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft for Rs 59,000 crore. Nearly four years after the signing of the agreement between the two governments, India got the first shipment of Rafale aircraft. All 36 Rafale jets will be delivered by the end of 2021. Dassault has given full training of aircraft and weapon systems to Indian Air Force pilots and all the support staff.

How deadly is Rafael?

• Rafale is a two-engine fighter jet.
• Rafale jets are capable of carrying many weapons. It is also capable of flying with nuclear weapons.
• Rafael’s Weapon packages feature in the ‘Meteor Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missile‘ of Europe’s missile maker MBDA and ‘Scalp Cruise Missile’ capable of an air-to-ground hit. Rafael’s Scalp Missile has a range of about 300 km.
• Apart from missile systems, Rafale jets will be equipped with many India specific modifications. These include Israeli helmet-mounted displays, radar warning receivers, low band jammers, 10-hour flight data recording, infrared search and tracking systems, etc.
• The Rafale aircraft has a carrying capacity of 9500 kg and is capable of an additional 60 hours of flying with a maximum weight of up to 24,500 kg.
• Rafael is 15.27 meters tall and 5.3 meters high. Its fuel capacity is about 17 thousand kilograms.
• Rafael can fly up to 60 thousand feet altitude in a minute. Rafale can fly at a speed of 2,223 km per hour.
• Rafael’s radar can detect 40 targets at a time within 100 km. This will allow the Indian Air Force to see them without knowing the enemy aircraft.
• The speciality of finding 40 targets simultaneously makes this fighter jet more special than others.