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The Indian Air Force is going to get Rafale s second squadron in mid-April. It is scheduled to be deployed at the airbase at Hashimara in West Bengal. Hashimara Air Base is close to China and Bhutan Trijunction. It is also being said that making a squadron is going to give a befitting reply to any snowball in China. Rafale s first squadron is at Ambala Air Force Station. Rafale Fighter Jet has 5 fighter jets in its first squadron. It has been inducted into the Air Force in the month of September last year.
Air Force can fly this fighter aircraft at Hashimara Air Base from May. At the same time, training of fighter pilots in France can also be completed. With which the Airforce can include more than 20 Rafale fighters.
The Rafale jets are India s first major acquisition of fighter planes in 23 years after the Sukhoi jets were imported from Russia. Picture credit (PTI)
NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force is set to raise a second squadron of the Rafale combat aircraft in mid-April and it will be based in Hasimara air base in West Bengal, official sources said on Thursday.
The first squadron of the Rafale jets is stationed at Ambala Air Force station. The first batch of five Rafale jets arrived in India on July 29 last, nearly four years after India signed an inter-governmental agreement with France to procure 36 of the aircraft at a cost of Rs 59,000 crore.
The second Rafale squadron being raised at the next main operating base at Hasimara in mid-April this year. India is expected to get more Rafale from France in the next couple of months.
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The first batch of the five Rafale jets arrived in India on July 29, nearly four years after India signed an inter-governmental agreement with France to procure 36 of the aircraft at a cost of ₹59,000 crore.
The induction ceremony of the first five Rafale jets at the Ambala Air Force base on September 10 last cost the exchequer a little over of ₹41 lakh including ₹9.18 lakh GST, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in Rajya Sabha on Monday. The first five Rafale aircraft of IAF were formally inducted into IAF on September 10. The arrangements for this event were made mostly through local resources of IAF. The total expenditure on the event was ₹41.32 lakh including ₹9.18 lakh of GST, he said.