Rafale weaponry prompts China, Pakistan to alter defence posture

NEW DELHI: With the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Rafale fighter successfully test-firing the 60km range Hammer air-toground modular weapon in March, the air defence posture of both China and Pakistan has changed in the wake of the advent of the multi-role fighter in South Asia, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Hammer weapon secured a bunker-busting vertical hit on its target at the testing location.

According to top South Block officials, with the IAF’s first Rafale squadron just one short of completion in Ambala, the Chinese have moved their so-called fifth generation fighter J-20 ahead in the Tibet and Xinjiang airbases.

The Pakistanis have also moved their Chinese import JF-17 fighter in key forward bases to tackle the clear and present threat of the Rafale fighter.

Although the Chinese say the J-20 is the third operational fifth-generation fighter after the US F-22 and F-35, genuine fifth-generation fighters developed by the Americans do not have a canard that further reduces the cross-section of the plane, the officials said.

The Chinese J-20 has the same canard as the Rafale, which the IAF calls a 4.5-generation fighter.

The Chinese and Pakistani air posture has also undergone a change with IAF’s induction of the Rafale as the latter carries the Meteor air-to-air missile, whose range is way beyond any missile the other two forces have in their arsenal.

The Hammer and Scalp airlaunched cruise missile with a range of over 500km ensures that the adversary will have no early warning as the two weapons can be launched from within Indian territory and beyond visual range.

Seven more fighters have been lined up for delivery to IAF next month.