India deploys Rafale fighters on eastern front with China...

NEW DELHI: India has now deployed its latest omni-role Rafale fighter jets close to the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction on the eastern front with China, which constitutes a new deterrent just before the next round of top-level military talks between the two countries likely on Saturday.

Eight new Rafales, armed with decidedly deadly weapons packages, were formally inducted into the 101 `Falcons of Chhamb and Akhnoor’ Squadron at the Hasimara air base in West Bengal on Wednesday.

As the 4.5-generation Rafales tore into the sky with sonic booms to shatter the calm over Hasimara, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria said the 101 Squadron with the “unmatched potential” of the new fighters “would dominate whenever and wherever required, and ensure the adversary would always be intimidated by their sheer presence”.

The first Rafale squadron, the 17 `Golden Arrows’, is already fully operational at the Ambala airbase with its full complement of 18 fighters, which have been undertaking regular sorties in eastern Ladakh amidst the continuing military confrontation with China there.

The remaining 10 of the 36 twin-engine Rafales, contracted under the Rs 59,000 crore deal inked with France in September 2016, are slated to arrive in batches before the deadline of April next year.

The deployment of the French-origin Rafales in the eastern sector, along with the Russian-origin Sukhoi-30MKI fighters already operating from air bases like Tezpur and Chabua, will lead to a greater offensive punch against China.

China, of course, has four times the number of fighters and bombers as compared to IAF. It has also upgraded its major air bases like Hotan, Kashgar, Gargunsa (Ngari Gunsa), Lhasa-Gonggar and Shigatse for additional fighters and bombers since the Ladakh crisis first erupted in April-May last year.

But the IAF has a distinct “terrain advantage” in combat potential, both in terms of aerial combat as well as ground attack, along the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control, stretching from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.

The Chinese air bases facing India are located at high-altitude with rarefied air, which severely limits the weapon and fuel-carrying capacity of fighters. Moreover, contend IAF officers, their upgraded Mirage-2000s, MiG-29s and Sukhoi-30MKI jets, and now the latest Rafales, are technically superior to the bulk of Chinese fighters.

With a combat range of 780-km to 1,650-km depending on mission, the Rafales are armed with long stand-off weapons like the over 300-km range `Scalp’ air-to-ground cruise missiles. They also have the top-notch Meteor air-to-air missiles, which with a strike range of 120 to 150-km are better than any missiles currently carried by Chinese or Pakistani jets.

IAF had last year also ordered the “Hammer” air-to-ground precision-guided munitions, which have a strike range of 20 to 70-km to destroy bunkers, hardened shelters and other targets, for the Rafales.

Though Ambala and Hasimara will be the `main operating home bases’ for the Rafales, which also have advanced avionics, radars and electronic warfare systems to prevent jamming by adversaries and ensure superior survivability in hostile contested airspace, the fighters can operate from anywhere in the country as and when required.