The Rafale jets landed at the Ambala Air Force base after covering a distance of 7,000 km from the Merignac airbase in French port city of Bordeaux. The fleet landed at Al Dhafra airbase on Monday in the UAE after flying for over seven hours from the Merignac airbase. It was the only stopover by the jets while flying from France to India.
PM Narendra Modi welcomed Rafale by tweet
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s office also informed public through tweet
The Rafale jets are India’s first major acquisition of fighter planes in over two decades, and they are expected to significantly boost the Indian Air Force’s combat capabilities. The NDA government had inked a Rs 59,000-crore deal on 23 September, 2016 to procure 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation. The emergency acquisition was made primarily to check the depleting combat capability of the IAF as the number of its fighter squadrons had come down to a worrying 31 against the authorised strength of at least 42.
