“Fire & Forget”: IAF’s Rafale Jets To Equip HAMMAR Missiles, Emergency Order
The HAMMER missile will provide an edge to IAF over China amid India China Border tension.
New Delhi: In just under a week India will get its first batch of Rafale fighter jets. The batch will come with 5 jets. The jets are already equipped with SCALP and Meteor missiles and ammunition.
The Indian Air Force has further boosted the jets capacity by equipping the jets with HAMMER (Highly Agile Modular Munition Extended Range) missiles from France. This missile is also said to be “Fire and Forget,” because of its capability to precisely hit any type of targets at the range of around 60-70 kilometres, if fired from air or 15-20 kilometres if fired from ground.
The missile is being equipped under the emergency powers for acquisition which was given to defence force by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The government told ANI news agency, “The order for the HAMMER missiles is being processed and the French authorities have agreed to supply them to us at a short notice for our Rafale combat aircraft.”
The jets will be arriving on july-29 and will be flown by the Indian Air Force pilots of the Golden Arrows commanding officer. The jets will touchdown at Haryana’s Ambala city, flying from Istres, France. The jets will be refulled in mid-air by French Air Force tanker aircraft between Israel or Greece before their stopover in the Middle East.
The HAMMER missile will provide an edge to IAF over China amid India China Border tension.
Recently, Indian Naval MiG-29K fighter jets were deployed in Northern Ladakh with the increasing tensions with China, as China is continually denying to fall back on their actual position.
Indian government has signed the deal of Rafale jets with French aviation company Dassault worth Rs. 59,000 crore in September – 2016. The deal will provide 36 Rafale jets to India by September – 2022.