Indian Air Force resurrects 'Golden Arrows' to house Rafale

The Rafale fighter on Tuesday got its new home with the Indian Air Force after Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa resurrected the No. 17 'Golden Arrows' Squadron at Haryana's Ambala airbase. With this, the Golden Arrows Squadron has been put on Indian Air Force's active Order of Battle.

The 'Golden Arrows' was raised on October 1, 1951, at Ambala with the Harvard IIB trainer aircraft and later got its first jet fighter de Havilland Vampire. Later, British Hawker Hunters and Russian MiG-21s were part of its fleet. ACM Dhanoa had commanded the 'Golden Arrows' during the 1999 Kargil War and even flew several sorties to bomb the Pakistani intruders perched on the mountains.

With the IAF retiring MiG-21 variants, the Golden Arrows was number plated (decommissioned) in 2006. But now, the squadron will fly the latest fighter in IAF's arsenal — the 4th Generation French Rafale combat aircraft.

IAF will officially induct the Rafale on October 8, 2019, in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. A government source said that October 8 is auspicious on account of Dusshera and Air Force Day being celebrated on the same day.

A batch of 24 IAF fighter pilots are being trained on the Rafale in batches and the first plane will land in India only in May 2020 after all the India-specific enhancements to make it more lethal have been carried out on the fighter. While one squadron of Rafales will be based in Amala to tackle Pakistan, the second squadron of 18 jets will be at Hashimara in West Bengal to deal with China.

India signed a deal with France for 36 Rafale jets in early 2016. IAF Rafales will be armed with several state-of-art weapons including the beyond visual range (BVR) air-to-air Meteor, short and medium-range air-to-air MICA and precision-guided air-to-ground SCALP missiles.