{"id":31892,"date":"2025-04-10T02:00:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T20:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=31892"},"modified":"2025-04-16T16:38:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T11:08:01","slug":"rafale-m-jets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/rafale-m-jets\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafale-M Jets"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Rafale-M Jets Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>Recently, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by the Prime Minister, approved a \u20b963,000-crore deal for procuring 26 Rafale-M fighter jets from France for the Indian Navy.<\/p>\n<h2>Background<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Initially, under the <strong>MMRCA tender (2007)<\/strong>, India planned to acquire <strong>126 jets with technology transfer<\/strong>, which was shelved in <strong>2015<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>A <strong>direct deal<\/strong> in <strong>2016<\/strong> led to <strong>36 Rafale jets<\/strong> for the IAF, delivered between <strong>2019-2022<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Details of the Deal<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The deal includes <strong>22 single-seater Rafale-M<\/strong> jets for <strong>carrier operations<\/strong> and <strong>4 twin-seater trainer variants<\/strong>, which are <strong>non-carrier compatible<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The jets are meant to operate from <strong>INS Vikramaditya<\/strong> and <strong>INS Vikrant<\/strong>, India\u2019s two operational aircraft carriers.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>agreement is expected to be signed<\/strong> during the upcoming <strong>visit of the French Defence Minister<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>About the Rafale Fighter Jet<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Dassault Rafale<\/strong> is a <strong>4.5 generation, twin-engine, delta-wing, multirole fighter aircraft<\/strong> manufactured by <strong>Dassault Aviation<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Capable of Sps up to <strong>Mach 1.8<\/strong> and a <strong>combat radius exceeding 1000 km<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Designed for <strong>air superiority, ground support, reconnaissance<\/strong>, and <strong>anti-ship missions<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Key Features and Avionics<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Equipped with <strong>RBE2 AESA radar<\/strong>, <strong>SPECTRA electronic warfare suite<\/strong>, <strong>front sector optronics<\/strong>, and <strong>omnidirectional warning systems<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Powered by <strong>2 SNECMA M88 turbofan engines<\/strong>, providing <strong>supercruise capability<\/strong> (supersonic flight without afterburners).<\/li>\n<li><strong>14 hardpoints<\/strong> can carry external payloads up to <strong>9,500 kg<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Rafale Variants<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Rafale C<\/strong>: Single-seat Air Force version.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rafale B<\/strong>: Twin-seat version for training with full combat capability.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rafale M<\/strong>: <strong>Naval variant<\/strong>, designed for <strong>carrier-based operations<\/strong>, with <strong>reinforced landing gear<\/strong> and <strong>tailhook<\/strong> for short-deck landings.<\/li>\n<li>Other variants include <strong>Rafale N<\/strong> (nuclear strike) and <strong>Rafale R<\/strong> (research and development).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Rafale-M Jets FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1. <\/strong>What are Rafale-M jets?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> French-origin carrier-based multirole fighter jets used by the Indian Navy, capable of nuclear delivery and equipped with Meteor missiles and AESA radar.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2. <\/strong>Why did India procure Rafale-M?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> To enhance naval airpower for INS Vikrant, counter China\u2019s carrier fleet in the Indo-Pacific, and replace aging MiG-29Ks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q3. <\/strong>What distinguishes Rafale-M from IAF\u2019s Rafales?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> Reinforced landing gear, tail hooks for carrier landings, and foldable wings for compact storage on aircraft carriers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q4. <\/strong>What controversies surrounded the deal?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> Allegations of procedural violations (offset clauses) and high costs (\u20b960,000 crore for 26 jets), raised in Parliament in 2023.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q5. <\/strong>How does Rafale-M support \u2018Make in India\u2019?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> Dassault-Reliance JV manufactures 30% components domestically, boosting defense indigenization under the Strategic Partnership model.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/india-clears-mega-deal-to-buy-26-rafale-marine-fighter-jets-from-france-for-navy\/article69430486.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by the Prime Minister, approved a \u20b963,000-crore deal for procuring 26 Rafale-M fighter jets from France for the Indian Navy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}