On Monday, the first batch of 5 Rafale Fighter Aircraft takes off from France for India. After nearly about four years both the countries inked an inter-governmental agreement to supply 36 of the multi-role aircraft to the Indian Air Force under a Rs 59,000 crore deal.
Five Rafale Fighter Aircraft on Monday, left Merignac Airbase of Bordeaux, the French port city and will cover a distance of about 7,000 km through the air to air refuelling and then have a single stop in the United Arab Emirates before they arrived at Ambala airbase on Wednesday, officials said.
The official also mentioned that all the five aircrafts had landed safely in Al Dhafra Airbase in the UAE after a sortie in excess of seven hours. The batch of aircraft that took the fleet from France includes three single-seater and two twin-seater aircraft, Jawed Ashraf (Indian Ambassador to France) interacted with the Indian Air Force pilots at the airbase before they set off for India and said “You can call them (Rafale) both beauty and the beast.”
The 5 Aircraft will be officially inducted into the IAF and scheduled to arrive on Wednesday, at Ambala Airbase as a part of No 17 Squadron, which is also recognized as the “Golden Arrows”.
The Indian embassy in Paris made a statement and said, the delivery of 10 Aircraft has been completed on schedule and five of them will stay back in France for their training on missions. The delivery of all the 36 Aircraft which were the part of the deal will be completed as per scheduled by the end of 2021.

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