Indian Chief of Air Staff will receive five Rafale fighter jets at Ambala today

Indian Chief of Air Staff RKS Bhadauria will receive five Rafale fighter jets at Ambala on Wednesday afternoon when the fleet arrives at the strategically key airbase, officials said.
The Rafale jets are India’s first major acquisition of fighter planes in over two decades, and they are expected to significantly boost the Indian Air Force’s combat capabilities.
India had inked a Rs 59,000-crore deal on September 23, 2016 to procure 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major
Dassault Aviation.

The first batch of five jets took off from the Merignac airbase in French port city of Bordeaux on Monday, and will be arriving in Ambala today afternoon after covering a distance of nearly 7,000 km.

The fleet, comprising three single seater and two twin seater aircraft, will be inducted into the IAF as part of its No 17 Squadron.

The fleet landed at Al Dhafra airbase in the UAE after flying for over seven hours. It was the only stopover by the jets while flying from France to India.
The jets were also refulled mid-air from a French tanker at a height of 30,000 feet, according to the Indian Embassy in France.

The first Rafale jet was handed over to the IAF in October last year during a visit to France by Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
While the first squadron of the Rafale jets will be stationed at Ambala airbase, the second one will based at Hasimara base in West Bengal.

The Ambala base is considered one of the most strategically located bases of the IAF as the Indo-Pak border is around 220 km from it.
Currently, the base has two squadrons of the Jaguar combat aircraft and one squadron of the MiG-21 Bison.
Marshal of the IAF Arjan Singh was the first commander of the Ambala base in independent India.
The IAF spent around Rs 400 crore to develop required infrastructure like shelters, hangars and maintenance facilities at the two bases.