Rafale jet ready to take on any challenge from Leh to Kanyakumari: IAF Squadron Leader Sarthak Kumar

The Indian Air Force is prepared for all adversities and if push comes to shove, the newly-inducted Rafale fighter jets are ready to undertake any challenge from the northern frontiers to the southern borders, IAF Squadron Leader Sarthak Kumar said on Saturday. “The Indian Air Force is ready to undertake any challenge from Leh to Kanyakumari. The Rafale fleet is ready to undertake any operation,” Kumar, who is also a Rafale fighter jet pilot, said. Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria too exuded pride and confidence over the new Rafale jets and said that the Chinese aggression along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) will be dealt with a befitting reply by India if provoked. “If they can be aggressive, we can also be aggressive,” the IAF Chief said on the possibility of the Chinese getting aggressive along the LAC. The Rafale is a serious contender for our project to buy 114 multirole fighter aircraft, Bhadauria said in Jodhpur. “We have started the fifth-generation fighter aircraft programme with DRDO under AMCA aircraft project. We would like to add sixth-generation capabilities in that but we would like to first focus on the fifth-generation fighter aircraft,” the IAF Chief added. The Rafale jet will feature for the first time in the fly-past by the Indian Air Force during the Republic Day parade on January 26. The finale, the ‘Vertical Charlie’ manoeuver, will be done by the Rafale aircraft this time, Major General Alok Kacker told news agency ANI on Saturday. India and France are currently conducting a joint exercise – Desert Knight 2021 – in Jodhpur from January 20-24. “The significance of this exercise is that the Rafale fighter jets that have been inducted recently in our Air Force have trained with the Indian Sukhoi-30s and Mirage fighter planes. We have shown how quickly we have adapted to the Rafale fighters. We have shown the French the capability of our pilots that they any quickly operationalise in any fighter at a very fast pace,” Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said on Thursday.