The Indian Air Force’s strike capability is ready for a boost with 16 omnidirectional Rafale fighter jets joining the Golden Arrows squadron in April 2021 and with France’s largest jet engine maker Safran ready to manufacture combat engines and accessories in India with the matter said on Tuesday.
Five Rafale jets flew to Ambala Air Base via Abu Dhabi on July 29 and have already been inducted into IAF Squadron 17. The next batch of three Rafales will arrive in Ambala on November 5 directly from the Bordeaux-Merignac facility (there will be no stopping as they will be fed in the air), according to senior government officials. Seven Rafale fighters are already being used for IAF fighter pilot training in France.
Three more Rafales will arrive in January, another three in March and seven in April, bringing the total number of fighters delivered to the IAF to 21 single-seat fighters and seven two-seater training fighters. This means that by April next year, the Golden Arrows squad will be complete with 18 fighters and the remaining three can be dispatched to the Hashimara airbase in Alipurduar, North Bengal, to counter the threat posed by China on the eastern front. . All fighters are equipped with Mica and Meteor air-to-air missiles along with Scalp air-to-ground cruise missiles. India has now requested Safran for the modular air-to-ground weapon known as the Hammer with a 250 kg warhead.
While France is willing to offer more Rafale fighter jets to India, Safran’s offer to manufacture the Snecma M88 engines in India, four years after the contract was signed, is a welcome proposal, the officials cited above said.
The Rafale fighters will not only use M-88 engines, but can also be deployed to power Mark II light combat aircraft and advanced twin-engine multi-role combat aircraft developed by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). The IAF plans to purchase 83 LCA Mark IA aircraft, bringing the total number of Texas variants ordered to 123. Safran is said to be willing to offer engines without third-country spare parts, so no additional approvals are needed, and with a 100 % indigenization. The French offer can be discussed during the visit of the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Harsh Shringla, to France, the United Kingdom and Germany, starting in Paris this Thursday. While DRDO may continue to develop its own combat engine, the Safran engine will fill the gap between development and manufacturing.
Only the US, Russia, and France have the capacity to produce fighter jet engines, and China still uses Russian RD-93 and RD-33 engines to power its fighter jets like the J-31 and JF- 17.
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