India's first Rafale squadron to be formed in 2021: RKS Bhadauria

India's first Rafale squadron would be fully formed by the end of next year whereas the second squadron at Hasimara would be in place by 2023, Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria said here on Monday.

“The first five French-origin combat jets are at Ambala airbase. Another five are in France and being used by the IAF for training its pilots. The second batch of 3-4 Rafale jets would come by the end of October-early November. Subsequently, in every three months, few aircraft would come and by the next year-end, the first squadron – being flown by the 17 Squadron (Golden Arrows) will be fully formed,” he said.

With both squadrons in place by 2023, the purchase of two additional squadrons of Rafale is under the government's consideration.

After the first squadron of LCA is fully formed by 2021 end, the IAF would concentrate on a batch of 83 LCA Mark-1 and the fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) that, for all practical purposes, are still very much on the drawing board. Both would come from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

Asked about the declining squadron strength, the Air Chief Marshal shared a plan to augment the aircraft strength by more than 400 in the next decade. But even with all acquisition, IAF would have 36-37 squadrons in a decade – still short of its approved target of 42 squadrons.

The current plan relies heavily on the induction of the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft, homegrown basic trainer HTT-40 basic trainers, and realisation of the ambitious AMCA, which he said, would be the mainstay of the IAF in the next decade.

Bhadauria asserted that AMCA would come up by 2027 and from the beginning of the next decade, the indigenous fifth-generation fighter would be regularly inducted in the IAF. The plan is to induct two squadrons of the AMCA Mark-1 and five squadrons of AMCA Mk-II.

“AMCA is sure to come up by 2027 as per the time-line of 5-7 years given by the DRDO chief (G Satheesh Reddy). From the first year of the next decade, we would be inducting 14-15 AMCA every year,” the IAF chief said, exuding confidence.

For comparison, the research and development activities on the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft began in 1983, and India's very own fighter jet is still not fully ready after four decades.

By the end of this fiscal, the IAF may sign the contract to purchase 83 LCA Mark-I from the HAL, which would start the delivery after four years and complete the loading in 7-8 years. Incidentally, the deal was sanctioned by the Defence Ministry in 2016 but the contract was yet to be signed four years later.

The LCA Mark-1A would have a new generation Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar with simultaneous air-to-air and air-to-ground capability, missile warning system, an integrated advanced electronic warfare suite; advanced versions of air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons, and maintainability improvements.