Three Rafale fighter jets are scheduled to arrive in India on November 4 flying non-stop from France and will be inducted to the Golden Arrows Squadron.
With this, the Indian Air Force (IAF) will have eight of the 36 Rafale jets in service.
The three Rafale jets will fly directly from Istres in France to Jamnagar, India, a non-stop flight of more than eight hours. They will be accompanied by the French Air Force mid-air refueling aircraft and there will be a total of three tanking.
The first batch of five Rafale jets was formally inducted into the No.17 ‘Golden Arrows’ squadron of the IAF on September 10 at the Ambala Air Force station. They arrived in India in July with a stopover at the Al Dhafra airbase of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
During the first leg of the flight from the Merignac airbase at Bordeaux in France to the UAE, the jets were accompanied by the French Air Force mid-air refuellers. For the journey from the UAE, they were accompanied by IAF mid-air refuellers.
India has contracted 36 Rafale Omni-role fighter jets from France in fly-away condition with 13 India Specific Enhancements (ISE) under a 7.87-billion Euro Inter-Governmental Agreement signed in September 2016.