Cavalier India Defence Training Academy

T he IAF’s women pilots are already operating the MiG-21 Bison, Sukhoi-30 and Rafale, the people said. The force began inducting women as fighter pilots five years ago, a turning point in the armed forces. The Indian Air Force (IAF) is set to assign one of its women fighter pilots to a MiG-29 squadron for the first time, the fourth type of fighter aircraft women in the force will fly, people familiar with the development said on Thursday. The IAF’s women pilots are already operating the MiG-21 Bison, Sukhoi-30 and Rafale, the people said. The force began inducting women as fighter pilots five years ago, a turning point in the armed forces. “Pilots are assigned to fighter squadrons according to laid-down norms. It has nothing to do with gender,” said a senior official cited above. Last year, the IAF assigned Flight Lieutenant Shivangi Singh to its first Rafale squadron based in Ambala. Ten women have been commissioned as fighter pilots after the experimental scheme for their induction i...

India is also considering a French proposal to acquire six Airbus 330 multi-role transport tanker aircraft on a government-to-government basis for expanding the strike capability of the IAF Dassault Aviation has handed over 18 of the 36 contracted Rafale fighter jets to India. 11 have been inducted  into the Indian Air Force while 7 are being used for training IAF pilots in France. (Dassault Aviation /A Pecchi) Four Rafale fighters of the French Air Force will land in India this month to participate in joint exercises with the Indian Air Force’s Golden Arrows Squadron that was resurrected in September last with the induction of the Rafale fighter jets. The exercises have been scheduled between 19 and 25 January in the skies over the deserts of Rajasthan, people familiar with the matter said. The French air force’s Rafales will be accompanied by the Airbus A330 multi-role tanker transport aircraft (MRTT) for aerial refuelling support. The four fighters will also participate in joint...

The Golden Arrows Squadron of the Indian Air Force will have 18 Rafale fighter jets by April 2021. Three new Rafale jets will arrive today at the Jamnagar airbase directly from France. The additional jets will bolster the capabilities of the Golden Arrows Squadron of the Indian Air Force. This is crucial as it comes at a time when the tensions with China have been escalated along the Line of Actual Control at eastern Ladakh. Representative Image By April 2021, 16 omni role Rafale jets will be inducted into the Golden Arrows Squadron. On September 10, five French-made multirole Rafale fighter jets were inducted into the Indian Air Force in a glittering ceremony at the Ambala air force base. Three more jets will arrive in January, while another three in March . Seven more would arrive in April and this would take the total number of fighters handed over to the Indian Air Force to 21. While the Golden Arrows Squadron would be complete with 18 fighters, the remaining three would be sent to...

Indian Air Force Day: Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended greetings to the ''brave warriors'' of the Indian Air Force (IAF). The Indian Air Force is celebrating its 88th anniversary today when it will showcase it prowess and put its mainstream fighter jets on display. A key highlight this year is the newly-inducted Rafale fighter aircraft that will be featured. A grand parade-cum-investiture ceremony was held at the Air Force Station at Hindon near Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended greetings to the ''brave warriors'' of the Indian Air Force (IAF). "Many congratulations to all the brave warriors of the Indian Air Force on Air Force Day. You not only keep the skies of the country safe but also play a leading role in the service of humanity in times of disaster. Your courage, valour and dedication to protect Maa Bharti inspire everyone," PM Modi tweeted in Hindi. Rafale leads 'Vijay' formation, IAF's mi...

  (Representative image) Get ready to soon see a woman tear into the skies in the new omnirole Rafale fighter, which can also deliver nuclear weapons. Don’t also be taken aback if you finally spot women on board an Indian warship on the high seas. IAF has short-listed one of its 10 women fighter pilots to fly the spanking new Rafale jets at the Ambala airbase, even as the Navy also gets set to deploy two women officers as part of the crew for multirole helicopters that operate from front-linewarships. The twin moves herald a new chapter in the long-standing tussle to ensure the requisite gender equality in the 15-lakh strong armed forces. They also come at a time the Army is conducting a special board this month to finally grant permanent commission to women officers, though it still has no plans to allow them in the main fighting arms of infantry, mechanised forces and artillery. Though IAF has had women transport and helicopter pilots for long, it steadfastly resisted inducting w...

( Representative image French defence minister Florence Parly will embark on an official visit to India on September 10, where she will attend the induction ceremony of the first batch of the Rafale fighter aircraft by the Indian Air Force at Air Force Station (AFS) Ambala. This will mark Parly's third official visit to India since 2017 and one of her first official trips since the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, according to a statement by the French Embassy in New Delhi. "On this occasion, Minister Parly will strengthen France's forward-looking defence cooperation with India, its foremost Asian strategic partner," the statement said.During her visit the French Minister will meet her counterpart Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Their broad-ranging talks will cover, among others, industrial and technological partnership in line with the Make in India programme; operational defence cooperation, particularly maritime security in the Indo-Pacifi...

Representative Image  Addressing a seminar on ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India), organised by the Ministry of Defence recently, the PM exhorted the armed forces to embark on the self-reliance mission with full self-confidence. He also dwelt on the need to make India a defence manufacturing hub with the active involvement of the private sector not only in manufacturing but also in research and development. One of the key pathways to realising this vision could be opened if the Indian Air Force (IAF) unleashes a wave of domestic manufacturing to revamp its fleet. The euphoria generated by the arrival of Rafale should not blind us to the long haul that the IAF needs to make in renewing and expanding its fleet to overcome obsolescence and attrition. The threat of a two-front war currently looms large with an intransigent China least hesitant to mobilise its forces to grab territory or collude with Pakistan. In the current context every effort has to be made to fill in the voids...

Acquired from France, MICA is an all weather missile system available in both short and medium ranges. Represent ative Rafale-14  Image Amid a protracted stand-off along the LAC, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has accomplished a secret mission by conducting several rounds of air-to-air missiles that have recently been acquired from France and Russia from a frontline fighter aircraft off Odisha coast. Defence sources said anti-air multi-target MICA missile fired from Sukhoi-30 MKI for the first time successfully destroyed expendable aerial targets (EATs), demonstrating its stealth capabilities. Ahead of the planned integration with multi-role combat aircraft Rafale, the IAF test fired two rounds of Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missile MICA on Monday and Tuesday. #WATCH : Five #Rafale jets in the Indian airspace, flanked by two Su-30MKIs (Source: Raksha Mantri's Office) pic.twitter.com/hCoybNQQOv — ANI (@ANI) July 29, 2020 The fighter aircraft took off from Kalaikunda airbase ...

The man in Indian Air Force uniform is Air Commodore Hilal Ahmad Rather, with India's Ambassador to France jawed Ashraf, and Chairman of Dassault Aviation, Eric Trappier The first batch of the much-awaited five Rafale fighter jets that took off from France on July 27, 2020. In the moment of euphoria over the arrival of one of world's best fighter jets, Indian social media users were quick to point out the important role played by Hilal Ahmad Rather in the quick delivery of Rafale. Air Commodore Hilal Ahmad Rather is presently India’s Air Attaché to France. Hilal hails from South Kashmir's Anantnag district. He became India's first pilot to see off the batch of Rafale jets from France to India on July 27. Reports suggest that he played a crucial part in early delivery of the Rafales, and was previously associated with the weaponisation of the Rafale jets according to the Indian requirements. Hilal was commissioned in Indian Air Force as a fighter pilot on December 17, 19...

HIGHLIGHTS The IAF is in the process of inducting the DRDO's Astra missile into its fleet.  |  Photo : PTI Along with the Meteor missile, India's indigenously made Astra missile, will allow the IAF to regain the air strike superiority it surrendered to Pakistan post the Kargil War. Pakistan's AIM-120 C-5 AMRAAM missile, reportedly, has a maximum range of approximately 105 km. The MICA has a maximum range of just 50km, and the R-77, supposedly Russia's answer to the American missile, has a range of  80km. The Astra, with a reported range of 100km, will prove to be a fine addition to the spine of the IAF's fleet. The Indian Air Force (IAF) has begun the process to procure and induct the indigenously developed Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Astra missile into its fleet. Along with induction of the Astra, it is also currently integrating the Israeli I-Derby Extended Range missile on its Su 30 MKI. Speaking to the media, IAF representatives explained that, along with the medi...