Four Rafale Jets arrive in France for the Bastille Day Parade that Prime Minister Modi will attend
In order to participate in the Bastille Day flypast over the Champs Elysees in Paris on July 14 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be the honorary guest at the Parade, four Rafale fighter planes of the Indian Air Force arrived in France on Friday.
It gives me great pleasure to welcome our airmen and @IAF_MCC Rafale aircraft to France for the Bastille Day Parade on July 14, where Prime Minister @narendramodi will be the honoree. The Indian ambassador to France, Jawed Ashraf, tweeted immediately after the planes touched down in France, “Will fly over Paris skies with French Rafale in a message of partnership on the historic occasion.”
Two C-17 Globemaster planes carrying a 269-person tri-services detachment of the Indian armed forces departed for Paris on Thursday.
IAF’s marching contingent will be led by female helicopter pilot Squadron Leader Sindhu Reddy. Four Rafale planes, two C-17 Globemasters, and 72 people flew to France on Friday, according to the IAF.
“The flypast and marching by the IAF air warriors on Bastille Day follows a long association that the two nations share, especially in the field of air power,” the statement said.
“During the two World Wars, several Indians, including Welinkar, Shivdev Singh, H C Dewan, and Jumbo Majumdar, fought in the skies above France. For their valiant actions over the Falaise Gap during the closing stages of World War II, others, like Jumbo Majumdar, received decorations as well, it claimed.
The Ouragan was the first French aircraft that the Indian Air Force flew. Fighter aircraft like the Breguet Alize, Mystere IVA, SEPECAT Jaguar, Mirage 2000, and the Rafale have come after this, according to the IAF statement.
According to the IAF, flying exercises including Exercises Desert Knight, Garuda, and Orion have further reinforced the professional connections between the two air forces.
It said that the “Rafale aircraft of the IAF, flying wings to wings with the FASF (French Air and Space Force), is reflective of this strategic friendship spanning decades and continuing to mature, both on ground and in air.”
Under an intergovernmental agreement, India purchased 36 Rafale aircraft from France. The Sukhoi jets were acquired from Russia in 1992, making the Rafale fighters India’s first significant purchase of fighter aircraft in 23 years.
The Rafale planes can carry a variety of powerful weaponry. Three Rafale planes from the French Air and Space Force made a strategically significant stopover at the Indian Air Force’s Sulur station in Tamil Nadu in August of last year as part of a massive military operation it conducted in the Pacific Ocean.
