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Kolkata, Feb 2 (PTI): The marine version of the French-made Rafale fighter jet has been successfully flight-tested at a shore-based facility in Goa where conditions similar to that on the indigenously-developed aircraft carrier INS Vikrant were simulated, a top diplomat said.<\/p>\n
The Rafale-M is pitted against the US-made Super Hornet — both of which are being evaluated for a possible purchase by the Indian Navy for deployment on the 44,000-tonne INS Vikrant that is undergoing trials in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal for likely commissioning in August.<\/p>\n
“Tests were done to check its (Rafale-Marine’s) take-off (capability) from the deck of your (India’s) carrier and it has done very well,” Frech Ambassador to India Emmanuel Lenain told journalists on Tuesday evening here in a free-wheeling conversation.<\/p>\n
India’s new aircraft carrier has been designed as a ski-jump launch ship, different from many other such carriers, which use a catapult launch for their jets. The aircraft selected by the Indian Navy consequently must be capable of taking off in this fashion, carrying all weapon systems and full fuel load.<\/p>\n
The Rafale-M jet was tested for 12 days last month at Goa’s INS Hansa facility using a 283 metre mock ski-jump facility, Lenain said.<\/p>\n
The ski-jump ramp uses what naval experts call short take-off but arrested recovery (STOBAR) technology.<\/p>\n
Boeing’s Super Hornet or F\/A-18 jet, which is also being offered to India, is expected to undergo similar tests at INS Hansa next month.<\/p>\n
The suppliers have made modifications to both Rafale-M and Super Hornet to make them suitable for the Indian order, defence sources said.<\/p>\n
The Navy was looking for an aircraft that is capable of delivering nuclear loads, air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, and precision-guided bombs, they said.<\/p>\n
The Navy wants to initially purchase 26 jets for its aircraft carrier, though it had issued in 2017 a Request for Information (RFI) for 57 multirole aircraft capable of being launched from carriers.<\/p>\n
The RFI was issued as the Navy will be phasing out the MiG-29Ks, currently being used on INS Vikramaditya — a modified Kiev class carrier — in 2034.<\/p>\n
Ambassador Lenain pointed out that Indian Air Force was already using Rafale fighter jets and “was very satisfied with the aircraft”.<\/p>\n
Since the IAF has Rafale jets, a Naval order would build on commonality, he said.<\/p>\n
“We have already supplied 35 Rafales in the last order and will complete it by sending the 36th before the deadline in April,” he said.<\/p>\n
India had in 2016 placed the order for the jets with Dassault in a fly-away condition.<\/p>\n
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Kolkata, Feb 2 (PTI): The marine version of the French-made Rafale fighter jet has been successfully flight-tested at a shore-based facility in Goa where conditions similar to that on the indigenously-developed aircraft carrier INS Vikrant were simulated, a top diplomat said. The Rafale-M is pitted against the US-made Super Hornet — both of which are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-183247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}