The first batch of
Rafale fighter aircraft, which landed in India on July 29, is set to be
formally inducted into the Indian Air Force, in an official ceremony on
Thursday. The event will be attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, his
French counterpart Florence Parly and India’s top military brass.

The ceremony will take
place at Ambala airbase, where Parly and Singh are going to hold talks on ways
to further deepen bilateral defence and security cooperation between the two
nations, reported PTI. As per the reports, the French defence minister is
scheduled to arrive Thursday morning, and will depart late afternoon.

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India had signed an
inter-governmental agreement with France to procure 36 Rafale jets at a cost of
Rs 59,000 crore. The jets have been produced by French aerospace major,
Dassault Aviation.

So far, ten Rafale
jets have been delivered to India, and five of them stayed back in France for
imparting training to IAF pilots. The delivery of all 36 aircraft is scheduled
to be completed by the end of 2021. A second batch of four to five Rafale jets
is likely to arrive in India by November.

The Rafale jets, known
for air-superiority and precision strikes, are India’s first major acquisition
of fighter planes in 23 year, after the Sukhoi jets were imported from Russia.

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The Rafale jet is
capable of carrying a range of potent weapons. European missile maker MBDA’s
Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile and Scalp cruise missile will be
the mainstay of the weapons package of the Rafale jets.

Meteor is a next
generation beyond visual range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) designed to
revolutionise air-to-air combat. The weapon has been developed by MBDA to
combat common threats facing the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Sweden.

Out of 36 Rafale jets,
30 will be fighter jets and six will be trainers. The trainer jets will be
twin-seater and they will have almost all the features of the fighter jets.

While the first
squadron of the Rafale jets will be stationed at Ambala air base, the second
one will be based at Hasimara base in West Bengal.