Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will continue with the tradition of performing ‘Shastra pooja’ on Dussehra, however, this year it will be in France.
Rajnath Singh is going on a visit to France on Tuesday to receive the first Rafale combat aircraft. He is also likely to fly a sortie in India’s first Rafale aircraft in France on October 8.
During his trip to France, the Defence Minister will officially receive the fighter jet from France and is likely to fly in it after it is officially inducted in the Indian Air Force (IAF), defence sources told Press.
As per the schedule, Rajnath Singh will arrive in France on October 8, which also happens to be Air Force Day and Dussehra as well. On the same day, he will receive the aircraft in Merignac near Bordeaux.
On October 9, he will visit Paris with a team of senior defence and air force officials, including Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal HS Arora, sources said. The Indian planes have been equipped with many India-specific enhancements, which have been fitted at a cost of around one billion euros.
Though small batches of Indian pilots have already trained on the French Air Force planes, the IAF would train 24 pilots in three different batches till May 2020 for flying the Indian Rafale fighter jets.
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