Rafale gain: Meteor missiles that even Pakistan, China don’t have

The Meteor-beyond-visualrange missiles India is getting as part of the Rafale combat aircraft deal signed by the Modi government will re-establish its aerial supremacy over Pakistan and China, the defence ministry sources said.

They point out that the Meteor missile was not part of the Rafale deal done by the previous UPA government, but the Indian Air Force got it included as part of the weapons package.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman refrained from any mention of the Meteor missiles while replying to a series of questions on the Rafale medium multi-role combat aircraft deal, except to tell Samajwadi member Sukhram Singh Yadav not to compare the cost of 36 Rafale with the UPA’s contract for 126 aircraft as “the deliverables are significantly different” and the Modi government rather ensured a “better price.” Meteor missiles are that “deliverables” that she didn’t spell out for the security reasons.

In a written reply to the BJP’s Om Prakash Mathur, she said the government went for procuring 36 Rafale aircraft through government-to-government route to meet the “critical operational necessity” of the Indian Air Force and an inter governmental agreement was signed on September 23 last year.

She denied any irregularities in the deal in reply to another question by Neeraj Shekhar (Samajwadi Party) and told KT STul si, a nominated member and former additional solicitor general, that the agreement was signed with the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), skipping his query whether the CCS was consulted before or after the announcement of the purchase by Prime Minister Modi in France in 2015.

Pakistan was deterred from using its fighter plane fleet during the Kargil war since the Indian side had two beyond-visual-range missiles – French S530D and Russian RVV AE missile.