THE RAFALE . THE LATEST DASSAULT AVIATION COMBACT AIRCRAFT .
So , THE RAFALE , one of the powerful dassault aviation aircraft. The Rafale is a twin-jet fighter aircraft able to operate from both an aircraft carrier and a shore base. The fully versatile Rafale is able to carry out all combat aviation missions: air superiority and air defense, close air support, in-depth strikes, reconnaissance, anti-ship strikes and nuclear deterrence.
India’s air force has received five new Rafale fighter jets amid ongoing border tensions with China.
The aircraft are part of India’s deal with France in 2016 to buy 36 warplanes.
Delhi is hoping to modernise its dwindling Soviet-era air force fleet with the induction of Rafale multi-role jets.
But experts warn that these aircraft cannot be used right away in case of a conflict.
Air Marshal (retd) Pranab Kumar Barbora, who oversaw the induction of the Jaguar aircraft fleet, told the BBC that the arrival of the Rafale was a welcome move because “it will significantly enhance the air force’s capability”.
“But it will take a while before these aircraft are fully operational. You have to set up a logistics chain, train technical and ground staff in India,” he said.
He added that it usually takes up to two years before a new squadron is fully functional. The Rafale squadron will be fully operational when it has at least 18 aircraft.
The delivery of the remaining Rafale aircraft is expected to be completed by next year.
The jets, manufactured by French firm Dassault Aviation, took off from France on Monday and landed in the UAE for an overnight stopover. The journey showcased the aircraft’s endurance and mid-air fuelling capability.
Equipped with a wide range of weapons, the Rafale is intended to perform air supremacy, interdiction, aerial reconnaissance, ground support, in-depth strike, anti-ship strike and nuclear deterrence missions. The Rafale is referred to as an “omnirole” aircraft by Dassault.
The first Rafale, with tail number RB 001, which was handed over in France in October last year, will be the last one to arrive in India since all tests and integration would be tried out on it.
‘RB’ on the trainer aircraft’s tail stands for the initials of Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Bhadauria, the IAF chief. It is a tribute to Bhadauria for working out the Rafale deal as the force’s deputy chief earlier.
The single-seater comes with initials of BS, which stands for former IAF chief Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa.
Rafale to be 7th type of fighter in Indian inventory
The Rafale will be the 7th addition to the types of fighters that the IAF has — a feat very unique to the force in comparison to major air forces in the world.
It was in 2001 that the IAF had first moved a proposal to buy MMRCA — for which Rafales were eventually selected in 2012.
The IAF was keen on buying the Mirage 2000s and its French maker, Dassault Aviation, had offered to shift the assembly line of aircraft from France to India. It had, at the time, decided to shut down the aircraft line to pave way for the Rafale fighter jets.
But the Indian bureaucratic system delayed a formal decision in the matter and, in 2004, it was decided to float a global tender for the MMRCA rather than manufacture the Mirage 2000.
It was only in 2007 that a global Request for Proposal was issued, in which Rafale emerged as the winner in 2012.
Rafale statistics
With a range of 3,700 km, Rafale comes with its 10-tonne empty weight. It is fitted with 14 hard points. Five of these hard points are capable of drop tanks and heavy ordnance. Total external load capacity is 9.5 tonnes, which means that the Rafale can lift the equivalent of its own empty weight in payloads.
The maximum take off weight is 24.5 tonnes and the fighter can carry 4.7 tonnes of internal fuel and up to 6.6 tonnes external.
With a maximum speed of nearly twice the speed of sound, the landing ground run is 450 metres without drag-chute.
Radars and sensors
The Indian Rafale comes with an Israeli Litening pod for sensor commonality across platforms in the Indian inventory and not the Thales TALIOS laser designator pod that France uses.
The Rafale comes with RBE2 Active Electronically Scanned Radar, which when compared to radars with conventional antennas, gives unprecedented levels of situational awareness with earlier detection and tracking of multiple targets.
Rafale also has the ‘Front Sector Optronics’ (FSO) system, which is immune to radar jamming while operating in the optronic wavelengths.
It also comes with Spectra-integrated electronic warfare suite that provides long-range detection, identification and localisation of infrared, electromagnetic and laser threats.
The system incorporates radar, laser and missile warning receivers for threat detection plus a phased array radar jammer and a decoy dispenser for threat countering, according to the MBDA, which had developed the system with defence contractor Thales.
The pricing of Rafale
A lot has been spoken and written about the pricing of the Rafale deal, struck at 7.878 billion euros.
Immense political slugfest had also ensued over the fighter jets’ pricing ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The vanilla price (basic aircraft) cost about 91 million euros each for a single-seater and about 94 million euros for a two-seater trainer aircraft, which works out to be about 3.42 billion euros. The weapons cost about 710 million euros, while Indian-specific changes are priced at approximately 1,700 million euros.
Associate supplies, including simulators, for the 36 fighter jets cost about 1,800 million euros while performance-based logistics cost about 353 million euros.
Under the performance-based logistics agreement, 75 per cent of the Rafale has to be available at all times for operation.
