The Indian Air Force (IAF) will commission its first four Rafael fighters in Dassault’s Bordeaux-Mérignac facility on 8 October, an event to be attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. This follows the symbolic handing over by Dassault of a first Rafale on 19 September in France.
However, the first Rafales are not expected to reach Indian shores until April or May next year. They will be assigned to 17 Squadron ‘Golden Arrows’, which is located at Ambala Air Force Station in Haryana in northwest India. The squadron was stood up on 10 September, eight years after the former MiG-21 squadron
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