The French-origin nuke-delivery platform has emerged as the South Asian giant’s true “frontline” fighter replacing the Russian-origin Su-30MKIs.
All previous bilateral and multilateral wargames over the last 15 years have only witnessed Sukhoi combat aircraft’s participation from India’s side. The decision to send the Rafales to France for the wargames signals a shift in India’s combat jets line-up against archrivals China and Pakistan.
Four of the omni-role Rafale have flown to French Air and Space Force (FASF) Mont-de-Marsan air base from India as part of the IAF’s contingent today to join ‘Exercise Orion 2023’ alongside air force contingents from the United States, United Kingdom, and a host of other NATO nations, namely Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherland, and Spain.
“This would be the first overseas exercise for the IAF’s Rafale aircraft,” IAF’s spokesperson Wing Commander Ashish Moghe said in a statement. “Participation in this exercise would further enrich the employment philosophy of the Indian Air Force by imbibing the best practices from other air forces,” Moghe said.
Orion 2023 Aerial Wargames
NATO’s Exercise Orion 2023 will begin on April 17 and go on for about three weeks till May 5. The IAF’s Rafales are accompanied by a contingent of 165 airmen and officers, along with two Boeing C-17 Globemaster heavy cargo aircraft and two Russian Ilyushin IL-78 midair refuelers.
Exercise Orion 2023 is France’s biggest, in which its friendly foreign nations participate, India included, apart from NATO allies. During the second phase of the exercise, about 12,000 personnel of the NATO countries are participating. It would focus on defensive operations on land, in the air, at sea, and in cyberspace, reads a NATO statement.
According to Ministre De Armees, the French armed forces ministry, Orion 2023 is based on a scenario developed by NATO to apprehend the different phases of a modern conflict and will be on a scale unprecedented in recent decades.
It aims to train the French armed forces within a multinational joint forces framework to refocus the armed forces and their various branches and administrative levels on a joint, multi-domain (MDO) exercise in a contested environment.
The exercise will also involve an inter-ministerial perspective extending beyond purely military concerns. So, one of the major training themes of Orion 2023 will be the coordination of assets and effects over the full spectrum of operations to tackle these hybrid strategies.
This exercise will directly help to demonstrate France’s role as a major force for balance, able to commit to the defense of its own interests and to live up to its ambitions by engaging its effective participation in any actions that the Alliance may take in response to a crisis.
In this respect, the exercise will enable France to position itself as one of the few European nations able to summon this level of expertise in the operational planning and conduct of large-scale military exercises, said Ministre De Armees.
Rafale’s Tryst With Indian Air Force
India had ordered 36 of the 4.5-generation fighters from France in 2016 for nearly US$8 billion after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, in 2015, canceled a tender for 126 combat planes in which French company Dassault Aviation’s Rafale had emerged as the winner in January 2012.
The likely contract award had stalled for over three years before Modi intervened to scrap the potential deal and shrunk the order from 126 to 36 in an emergency buy due to operational requirements of the Indian Air Force.