First Made for India Rafale set to soar this month

Amid political controversy in India, the first Made-ForIndia Rafale fighter jet— RB008— is all set to take off on its inaugural flight in France this month end. Earlier, the flight was scheduled to take off on Sunday, 14 October, but it was shifted to the end of October because of unspecified reasons.

“This will be the first of the 36 Rafale fighter jets ordered by India,” said a top Ministry of Defence source. The fighter jet has been numbered as RB 008, after Air Marshal Rakesh Bhadauria, who is Air Officer Commanding in Chief, Training Command of the Indian Air Force. Air Marshal Bhadauria was the Deputy Chief of Indian Air Force and head of the Cost Negotiating Committee when the deal was signed in 2016.

There are eight such planes in the series—from RB001 to RB008, all twin-seaters. Besides, there are 28 other fighter jets under the BS series ( BS001 to BS028), which are single- seaters, numbered after Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa, Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force.

Air Marshal Raghunath Nambiar, who had flown the French Rafale (Test Bed B302), a twin-seater, on 22 September, when he was Deputy Chief of Air Staff, said: “It’s a good aircraft. I felt satisfied. And now the IAF should get all the Rafale fighter jets as per the delivery schedule.”

An Indian Air Force’s (IAF’s) four-member project management team (PMT) is camping in France for the last one year to monitor the production and India specific enhancements of the 36 Rafale fighter jets.

After this inaugural flight, the first Rafale fighter jet is scheduled to be delivered to