President Murmu to take sortie in Rafale fighter jet at Ambala Air Force Station today

New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu will visit Ambala, Haryana, on Wednesday, where she is scheduled to take a sortie in a Rafale fighter jet at the Ambala Air Force Station.

The President had earlier taken a sortie in a Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft at the Tezpur Air Force Station in Assam on April 8, 2023.

Rafale fighter jets were deployed during Operation Sindoor. Earlier this month, IANS reported that Dassault Aviation, the French aerospace major, is planning to establish a Rafale assembly line in India, eyeing fresh orders from both the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian Navy.

According to sources close to the development, India could soon become the first country to produce a 4.5-generation fighter aircraft without being an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM).

Dassault currently has a backlog of nearly 200 Rafale aircraft, including outstanding deliveries of 80 for the UAE, 42 for Indonesia, 12 for Croatia, 54 for Egypt, 24 for Greece, 36 for Qatar, and a potential 26 for the Indian Navy.

With the company’s present production capacity capped at 24 aircraft per year, sources said there is a strong case for setting up an additional production line at the Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL) joint venture facility in India.

India remains a major market, with the IAF looking to procure 114 fighter aircraft under a Request for Proposal expected to be issued within the next six months. This is set to be one of the largest fighter jet acquisition programs globally.