IAF gets Rafale MMRCA

The newly inducted Rafale Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCAs) are the flavour of the season. The public shares IAF’s joy, and Indian TV channels seem empowered with the news of their arrival to take off and bomb the hell out of anyone!

Rafale is indeed a great aircraft, the best in the region and among the best in the world. Its Electronic Warfare (EW) suites and radars and weapons, made by Thales and MBDA, are formidable. IAF has been waiting for the capability of this aircraft for more than 20 years, and its landing at IAF’s Ambala airbase this month couldn’t have had a better timing, given the aggressive manoeuvres by China and Pakistan.

Although only five Rafales have arrived so far, the manufacturer, French Dassault Aviation, with engine-maker Safran, is delivering one aircraft every month, and an adequate supply of weapons and spares have already been stocked in India.

Unfortunately, for itself and the world, China has triggered war-like tensions with all its neighbours, barring Pakistan and North Korea. There have been violent incursions into Indian territory or some unmarked areas where there was peace for decades.

For the first time in years, the Indian armed forces are geared in counter build-up, to hit the aggressor hard, and the proud Indian soldiers have demonstrated their resolve effectively. The Chinese do not disclose their casualties but in one case, a 23-year old Indian soldier from Punjab killed 12 of them in physical fights despite being attacked with barbaric, medieval nail-studded batons.

Rafales, whose pilots completed their training in simulated Himalayan territory in France itself, got into operational sorties immediately after their arrival, and have been patrolling along the borders teaming with other IAF aircraft like the Su 30 MKI and Mig 29. Notably, the Su 30MKI has also been equipped with MBDA’s air-to-air MICA missile, the standard on the Rafale. All the Indian aircraft, combat or transport, can talk to each other, thanks to the networking that IAF has evolved over the years.

It is significant to note that fighter jets need backup in supplies, and so do the Army, IAF and Naval units and personnel. IAF already has the huge C 17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, ferrying tanks and artillery guns to the border for the last several months. The great thing about this Boeing aircraft, and also about the Lockheed Martin’s C 130J Special Ops transport aircraft, is that both these can land in a grassy patch the size of a football ground even in a battle zone.

Then, IAF also has Boeing’s twin-rotor Chinook heavy lift helicopter and Apache Attack helicopter. All these, teamed with the Indian Navy’s P 8I multi mission Intelligence aircraft, have given our forces a formidable, new capability. Mind it, IAF retains the heavy lift capability of the good old 1980s-generation Russian Il 76 airlifter and another 100 of the smaller, workhorse AN 32s.

Our forces are Great. With Rafale, and with other aircraft and equipment, we will take on the aggressors the way they should be. The command is: Delete the Enemy.

–Gulshan Rai Luthra