For several years now, Dassault Aviation and Boeing have been competing in India over a contract aimed at supplying the Indian naval aviation forces with 57 onboard fighters capable of simultaneously equipping the Indian Navy's sky jump-equipped aircraft carriers, and its future aircraft carrier which will be equipped with catapults. In this case, the French group enjoys several advantages, mainly linked to the order of 36 Rafale passed in 2017 by Narendra Modi, and which provided, among other things, for the construction of a maintenance platform capable of maintaining a fleet of more than 150 combat aircraft. But there remains one area in which the Rafale still has to prove itself, that of the use of Ski Jump, this inclined ramp at the bow of the aircraft carrier, which allows aircraft to launch into the air with a positive vertical speed without using a catapult, and this d Much as Boeing's F/A 18 E Super Hornet already carried out such a demonstration a year ago, at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland.
For this purpose, according to the Indian press, Dassault Aviation will send one of its Rafale M, the on-board version of the French fighter, on the site of the shore-based test facility (SBTF) at the INS Hansa base in Goa early next year. This base is actually equipped with a training sky jump, having been used in particular for testing the Tejas Mk1. Not, moreover, that the French aircraft manufacturer doubts the capabilities of its aircraft, computer simulations having shown that the Rafale was fully capable of employing a Ski jump to take to the air with a significant combat load, but with the aim of removing any hesitation on the part of the Indian authorities.
Once qualified on Ski Jump, moreover by, or in the presence of, the Indian authorities themselves, the Rafale will undoubtedly be a very serious competitor in this new Franco-American duel in terms of arms contracts. Indeed, in addition to a very probable budgetary advantage due to the possible sharing of infrastructures between the aircraft of the Navy and the Indian Air Force and the use of a single platform already existing for this purpose, the French aircraft is also more compact than the Super Hornet, which represents a significant advantage aboard an aircraft carrier, while it offers a carrying capacity and above all a range greater than those of the American plane. In addition, and this is another major advantage, the French aircraft is already qualified to carry a number of munitions and equipment in service within the Indian armed forces, limiting the investment needs to “adapt” the device for specific Indian needs. Finally, The Rafale M embarked and Rafale Land-based B/Cs share almost all of their components, as well as their maintenance procedures and spare parts. In fact, using the same device within the air and naval forces makes it possible to significantly simplify personnel training and device maintenance.
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