India at last
receives Rafale from France
At last the
Inter-Governmental Agreement between India and France for 36 Rafale multirole
fighter jets
was signed after 17 months of hard bargaining. It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to dump the Medium
Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) tender. This is a breather for the Indian
Air Force, which has been facing depleting fighter strength. Given its technological superiority the
Rafale will augment the Indian Air Forces’s capability. The Rafales are
expected to play a lead role as nuclear delivery platforms in India’s
second-strike capability, replacing the Mirage 2000 fighters. In the years to
come, the indigenously built Light Combat Aircraft Tejas and the Fifth
Generation Fighter Aircraft from Russia will join the force.
It is the good
step taken by government. Today, such Rafale are necessary for our country.
But, one thing is unfortunate that our country is not able to produce such Rafale.
Government should focus on various technical institutes and provides them
better facilities to produce such fighter planes rather than import from other
countries.
There are some
critics who say that instead of providing standard equipage, armour and basic
human necessities to the Jawans braving a hostile arraign on the borders, we
are indulging in buying fancy aircrafts which will remain only show pieces
since we never will have an opportunity to use them in a war not even in
battles. “Give frequent relievers to the jawans. Give them OROP and their
families better living conditions,” they say.
The
requirements of USA, France, UK and Russia are different from India. Those
countries manufactures their own weapon systems, while India imports most of
their weapon systems. Since, no single country meets the requirements of India,
it has to mix and match from different sources to meet its own requirements. In
addition, the cost forces India to stretch the available funds as much as they
can and diplomacy is part of that formula. It is nice to have integrated long
term plans, but when India depends on imports, it is not possible as the threat
perception changes. Anyway, India has decades of experience with the logistics
of mix and match systems. The goal should be to develop and manufacture your
own systems. There is a long way to go, but unfortunately, India has hostile
neighbours and need to meet short term requirements. However, they should have
long term integrated plans and invest heavily to prosecute the plans
successfully.
The Rafale deal
is welcome to augment the strength of the Indian Air force which currently
wants empowerment with multi role fighters in the wake of depleting fighter
strength. Though it requires a huge bonanza the purchase is a must to upgrade
the air fighting strength with medium multi role combat aircraft.
We must
innovate more sophisticated flights to save huge cost of overseas purchase like
Rafale. There is global turmoil on ethnic and ego reasons among countries which
constraints them to go for purchases of sophisticated flights. India's inking
for Rafale is a normal process.
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