Rafale DH/EH of Indian Air Force : News and Discussions

The new Rafale configuration with 2 one-ton AASMs:

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In an excellent quality photograph, we can see towed lures X-Guard from the Israeli Rafael under the wings of a test Rafale. Designed to attract opposing missiles away from the carrier plane, the X-Guard have been integrated under the Rafale's Point 3 wing, a previously unused take-off point, even if it is theoretically capable of carrying an air-to-air missile of the MICA type

Source: Nouvelle conf rafale - Page 2 - Check-Six Forums
 
IAF Rafales Land July 27, ‘Gamechanger’ Weaponry To Arrive Ahead
When the first Indian Air Force Rafale jets land in Ambala on July 27, their weaponry will have already been delivered and stored, ready for operations with the inaugural squadron, ‘Golden Arrows’. Livefist can confirm that key weapon stocks, including the SCALP cruise missile and Meteor beyond visual air to air missile, have already begun arriving in consignments, with the first lot to be completed by the first week of July.

At least six Rafales will take off from Istres, France and make a single stopover at the UAE’s Al Dhafra air force base near Abu Dhabi. The jets, to be ferried by Indian pilots, will be accompanied by a French Air Force tanker, possible one of the two new A330 MRTT tankers. While the initial plan was to deliver four Rafales, Livefist can confirm that the IAF and Dassault Aviation are working to ensure at least six airframes arrive in one go, with the possibility of that number increasing by a couple of airframes.

By August, the Indian Rafales will be operationally ready. Apart from the inauguration of the Golden Arrows squadron in August-September, the Rafales will likely make their first public appearance at the October 8 Air Force Day flypast over Delhi. The MBDA Scalp is a 560+ km range air to ground cruise missile, while the Meteor is currently the longest range air to air missile in operations. Both weapons outclass anything the Indian Air Force has in its arsenal currently, and are unanimously seen as a major evolutionary step in combat capability. A naval version of the SCALP is incidentally on offer to the Indian Navy too for its to-be-selected P75I submarines.

IAF pilots in France have had extensive interactions and briefings from the French Navy and Air Force on Rafale combat deployments over Libya and elsewhere. In this 2017 post, Livefist detailed the Rafale experience in combat theatres.

Weaponry arriving ahead of new jets is routine. Weapons storage facilities at Ambala have been ready since late last year, with safety certification complete. The IAF Rafale’s weapons will be combat deployable soon after the jets arrive. Training in France, both with the jets and on simulators, has included combat simulations with both weapon types. That training will continue in Ambala.

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At the heart of the training ecosystem coming with India’s Rafales is a set of room-sized computers built by Sogitec, a fully owned subsidiary of Dassault Aviation. Termed synthetic collective training, two Sogitec training centres are being installed at Ambala and Hasimara (Hasimara will house the second Rafale squadron), each equipped with two Rafale simulators for initial and hands on training, flight and Weapon Delivery and Navigation System (WDNS) procedure learning including repetition of complete missions with complex tactical environments, two Unit Level Instruction System (ULIS) self-service trainers and one Part Task Trainer (PTT) for guided or free-access training on a restricted number of key procedures. The Ambala training centre will additionally have Rafale Maintenance Trainer and Computer-based Trainer rooms.

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While the Ambala and Hasimara bases will be the IAF’s principal Rafale centres, the Gwalior Mirage 2000 station will be fully integrated right from the start for operations and cooperative training. The collective training and synthetic learning architecture being installed at Ambala and Hasimara will be linked directly to a similar module in Gwalior, being set up for the IAF’s upgraded Mirage 2000-5 fleet (several have been upgraded so far out of 51). This will allow pilots at the three bases to fly cooperative simulated missions using both aircraft types on a long list of existing and fresh combat scenarios. These will, of course, include area denial combat air patrol operations on the Chinese front and northern sectors, close air support and interdiction missions in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, precision strike missions along the Line of Control and cooperative reconnaissance missions/anti-surface missions on both of India’s seaboards. The experience of the Gwalior squadrons, coupled with the new tools coming with the Rafale will be a huge mutual boost to both bases, types and fleets. The upgraded Mirage 2000 jets also share key weapons coming with the Rafales — the MICA air to air missile.
 
IAF Rafales Land July 27, ‘Gamechanger’ Weaponry To Arrive Ahead
When the first Indian Air Force Rafale jets land in Ambala on July 27, their weaponry will have already been delivered and stored, ready for operations with the inaugural squadron, ‘Golden Arrows’. Livefist can confirm that key weapon stocks, including the SCALP cruise missile and Meteor beyond visual air to air missile, have already begun arriving in consignments, with the first lot to be completed by the first week of July.

At least six Rafales will take off from Istres, France and make a single stopover at the UAE’s Al Dhafra air force base near Abu Dhabi. The jets, to be ferried by Indian pilots, will be accompanied by a French Air Force tanker, possible one of the two new A330 MRTT tankers. While the initial plan was to deliver four Rafales, Livefist can confirm that the IAF and Dassault Aviation are working to ensure at least six airframes arrive in one go, with the possibility of that number increasing by a couple of airframes.

By August, the Indian Rafales will be operationally ready. Apart from the inauguration of the Golden Arrows squadron in August-September, the Rafales will likely make their first public appearance at the October 8 Air Force Day flypast over Delhi. The MBDA Scalp is a 560+ km range air to ground cruise missile, while the Meteor is currently the longest range air to air missile in operations. Both weapons outclass anything the Indian Air Force has in its arsenal currently, and are unanimously seen as a major evolutionary step in combat capability. A naval version of the SCALP is incidentally on offer to the Indian Navy too for its to-be-selected P75I submarines.

IAF pilots in France have had extensive interactions and briefings from the French Navy and Air Force on Rafale combat deployments over Libya and elsewhere. In this 2017 post, Livefist detailed the Rafale experience in combat theatres.

Weaponry arriving ahead of new jets is routine. Weapons storage facilities at Ambala have been ready since late last year, with safety certification complete. The IAF Rafale’s weapons will be combat deployable soon after the jets arrive. Training in France, both with the jets and on simulators, has included combat simulations with both weapon types. That training will continue in Ambala.

sim.jpg


At the heart of the training ecosystem coming with India’s Rafales is a set of room-sized computers built by Sogitec, a fully owned subsidiary of Dassault Aviation. Termed synthetic collective training, two Sogitec training centres are being installed at Ambala and Hasimara (Hasimara will house the second Rafale squadron), each equipped with two Rafale simulators for initial and hands on training, flight and Weapon Delivery and Navigation System (WDNS) procedure learning including repetition of complete missions with complex tactical environments, two Unit Level Instruction System (ULIS) self-service trainers and one Part Task Trainer (PTT) for guided or free-access training on a restricted number of key procedures. The Ambala training centre will additionally have Rafale Maintenance Trainer and Computer-based Trainer rooms.

DDkDKg7V0AAD25S-1.jpg


While the Ambala and Hasimara bases will be the IAF’s principal Rafale centres, the Gwalior Mirage 2000 station will be fully integrated right from the start for operations and cooperative training. The collective training and synthetic learning architecture being installed at Ambala and Hasimara will be linked directly to a similar module in Gwalior, being set up for the IAF’s upgraded Mirage 2000-5 fleet (several have been upgraded so far out of 51). This will allow pilots at the three bases to fly cooperative simulated missions using both aircraft types on a long list of existing and fresh combat scenarios. These will, of course, include area denial combat air patrol operations on the Chinese front and northern sectors, close air support and interdiction missions in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, precision strike missions along the Line of Control and cooperative reconnaissance missions/anti-surface missions on both of India’s seaboards. The experience of the Gwalior squadrons, coupled with the new tools coming with the Rafale will be a huge mutual boost to both bases, types and fleets. The upgraded Mirage 2000 jets also share key weapons coming with the Rafales — the MICA air to air missile.
French have 28 more Rafales on order, Qatar has 21 or so. French themselves will order 30 more to keep the production line going. We should ensure that we order another batch soon so as to take the full advantage of the capability of the production line in France.

10-12 aircrafts delivered each year will really help us arrest the falling numbers and boost our capabilities.

And for the love of God. Get a dedicated Tanker and AWACS squadron for EAC. It's a disaster waiting to happen else.
 
French have 28 more Rafales on order, Qatar has 21 or so. French themselves will order 30 more to keep the production line going. We should ensure that we order another batch soon so as to take the full advantage of the capability of the production line in France.

Egypt wants 12 more at the minimum as well.
 
Egypt and Qatar both are peculiar.

Qatar having F15QA, Rafale and Eurofighter.

Egyptians having Rafale, Su35, F16Blk52 and Mig29M.

Amassing all the types in production.
And we are in dilemma,wether to pursue mmrca2 or not,Tejas mk2 can replace mmrca or not, orca can replace mmrca or not and some even want second hand mirages from UAE & France instead of mmrca. Irony is that we have to face two nuclear powers together in a war.
 
And we are in dilemma,wether to pursue mmrca2 or not,Tejas mk2 can replace mmrca or not, orca can replace mmrca or not and some even want second hand mirages from UAE & France instead of mmrca. Irony is that we have to face two nuclear powers together in a war.
We are just an example to the world what not to do while preparing for one's nation's defence.
 
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Egypt and Qatar both are peculiar.

Qatar having F15QA, Rafale and Eurofighter.

Egyptians having Rafale, Su35, F16Blk52 and Mig29M.

Amassing all the types in production.

They anticipated they are both going to be in trouble with other their neighbours and decided to create relations with all powerful countries.

Egypt is dealing with Italy now.
Sad reality, a country with miniscule economy like pakistan is way ahead of india when comes to defense preparedness.

The Pakistanis are nowhere even close to us, never mind way ahead.
 
We are just an example to the world what not to do while preparing for one's nation's defence.

Won't agree with that. Our appetite is merely too big for our pockets. And we have bigger pockets than all of the GCC combined.

Hell, our overall annual govt spending is half that of the GCC's GDP. It's our people that are poor, not the govt, relatively speaking.

The stuff they buy for long term use is nothing more than stopgap arrangement to us.
 
We like to base our defense and security on the goodwill of others. For example , lets maintain good relations with China so they wont attack us. Thats not deterrence.
Lets have 500 latest fighter planes on our Chinese border , thats what makes the enemy think.
We dont have neighbors like usa , canada .
Deluding ourselves and then scurrying to buy more Russian garbage, strange way to conduct defence.
 
Sad reality, a country with miniscule economy like pakistan is way ahead of india when comes to defense preparedness.
They for sure put much more concentrated efforts. For example their diplomatic missions in USA, Italy, UK , Germany and in past in France had a dedicated arms procurement office which kept a close watch on arms industry of that country and any EDA, Storage, unsold , etc items....

The Agosta 70 submarine of their Paris office was a great achievement for them. Those submarines were built for some other nation, but the final deliveries couldn't be completed. Pakistan managed to procure those at very cheap costs. They still serve the PN in training and coastal defence roles.
 
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Qatar has not mentioned anything yet. So I think we can beat them to a new contract if the govt acts quickly. Can't say the same for Egypt since they decide really quickly, especially considering even they have tensions with Turkey now.
Qatar initially in 2014-15 time wanted 72 Rafales I think. But after signing for 24+12 Rafales, they have also signed for F15QA and EF2000 too. I don't think they will be procuring any more fighters now.

For Egypt , they are working on a big package of arms sales with both Italy and Russia. Both have seen progress. So for now any slots open on the production line for next 4-5 years is ours to grab.
 
Won't agree with that. Our appetite is merely too big for our pockets. And we have bigger pockets than all of the GCC combined.

Hell, our overall annual govt spending is half that of the GCC's GDP. It's our people that are poor, not the govt, relatively speaking.

The stuff they buy for long term use is nothing more than stopgap arrangement to us.
It's not the money I am complaining about. With respect to our economy, social progress, for the Security units under MoD we are allocating more than enough funds.

What I am disappointed at is the disconnect between the three forces itself. Engaged in a turf war for everything. Creating unnecessary duplication. Then our formation of forces and command structure which is of WW2 era. Our forces itself with so much greater numbers of non combatants serving. All these are the issues which are pulling us down.

And the money, well R&D is a problem. We invest more in buying 12 Harpoons for Type209 than on development and testing of Nirbhay platform. That's absolutely criminal. How do we expect results in these circumstances?