The last batch of three Rafale jets is scheduled to arrive in India from France this week, boosting Indian Air Force capabilities in the wake of a tense border dispute with neighboring China.
The three fighters will fly directly from France to India, undergoing in-flight refueling along the way.
“IAF has taken delivery of the jets in France and the modalities of their ferry to India are being worked out and should be arriving in India by the middle of next week,” the Hindu quoted a defense official as saying.
Meanwhile, France is upgrading all India’s Rafale jets with 13 India-specific enhancements for greater lethality. The enhancements will likely include a more powerful radar warning receiver, flight data recorder, altimeter, and high-altitude engine start-up.
India received its first batch of five Rafales in July 2020, after it signed a 59,000 Indian rupee crore ($9.4 billion) deal with French company Dassault Aviation to purchase 36 jets in 2016.
The Rafale contract is one of India’s largest in recent history, as the country purchased fighter jets for the first time in two decades. It last imported Sukhoi fighters from Russia in 1996.
