The second batch of the Indian Air Force’s 3 Rafale fighter jets, that reached the Jamnagar airbase in Gujarat from France on Wednesday, square measure seemingly to fly to their home base in Ambala on weekday, officers conversant in developments aforesaid.
The jets landed in Jamnagar last night while not a stopover on the manner, with refuelling support from Indian and French tankers.
The first batch of 5 Rafale jets of the thirty six ordered by the IAF reached the Ambala airbase on Gregorian calendar month twenty nine when a trip at the Al Dhafra airbase close to Abu Dhabi, though a proper induction ceremony befell presently September ten.
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The arrival of additional fighters can any boost the IAF’s capability to speedily deploy the advanced jets amid military tensions with China within the Ladakh theatre, the officers aforesaid.
The IAF is expecting 3 to four Rafale jets being delivered each 2 months, with all the thirty six planes seemingly to affix the air force’s combat fleet by the year-end.
The jets were ordered from France in September 2016 below a government-to-government deal price Rs fifty nine,000 crore.
The Rafale fighters square measure the primary foreign jets to affix the IAF in twenty three years when the Russian Sukhoi-30 jets entered service in Gregorian calendar month 1997.
The IAF is working the Rafale fighter jets within the Ladakh theatre wherever the military is on high responsive to wear down any provocation by China.
IAF chief air chief marshal RKS Bhadauria last month aforesaid the mixing of Rafale fighter jets brought in an exceedingly platform armed with advanced weapons, sensors associated technologies that gave the IAF an operational and technological edge.
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