After flying for around 7,000 km, the beasts, Rafale have entered Indian airspace and will land at the Ambala Air Force Base shortly. At Ambala, they will be received by the Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria. Five French-made fighter jets, which have been considered as game-changer for Indian Air Force will be inducted in the No.
The Birds have entered the Indian airspace..Happy Landing in Ambala! @IAF_MCC pic.twitter.com/dh35pMDyYi
— रक्षा मंत्री कार्यालय/ RMO India (@DefenceMinIndia) July 29, 2020
17 Squadron, ‘Golden Arrows’. These fighter jets took off from Merignac airbase in the French port city of Bordeaux and covered around thousands of miles before arriving at the Ambala Air Force Base. Meanwhile, the Ambala Cantt area has been declared as a ‘no-drone area’ as it is a sensitive zone. Also, no photography allowed in the area, and If anyone violates these orders, action will be taken against them, warned DSP Ambala Cantt Ram Kumar. Sector 144 CrPC has been enforced in 4 villages closer to Ambala airbase and gathering of people on roofs and photography during landing has been strictly prohibited.
Three Rafale fighter jets are single-seater and two are twin-seater. These beasts were flown by IAF pilots for seven hours with the help of the mid-air refuellers. It had a brief stopover at Al Dhafra airbase in the United Arab Emirates. Though the distance between India and UAE is not big, the fighter jets had to maintain a certain speed to keep up with the refuellers.
This weapon, IAF is already familiar with as it is part of the French Mirage 2000 aircraft. This is the only missile in the world which comes with two interoperable seekers (active radar and imaging infrared). This will cover a wide spectrum — close-in dogfight to long beyond visual range. And it has the capability to fly out to BVR in passive mode before the seeker locks on in the final stages of the end game. That is why it is known as the `silent killer’. Why? Because the target will have hardly any time to react or deploy effective countermeasures.
(With the inputs of FE).
