*ISLAMABAD: India’s dream of military superiority in the region wasshattered on Thursday after it came to light that Pakistani pilots areexpert of Rafale aircraft, the multirole fighter aircraft that India seeksto induct into its air force.*
The Indian government and its military forces stun after the clarificationcame by Aviation International News, an independent media firm that said inits report that “[T]he first batch of pilots trained for Qatar in November2017 were Pakistani exchange officers.”
According to Jon Lake, the author of the piece, “Escadron de Chasse 04.030was established at Mont-de-Marsan as the Qatar Rafale Squadron on October1, 2017.”
The Indian government has sought clarification from the manufacturingcompany about the report after fears that such a training may have madePakistani pilots cognizant about all strengths and weaknesses of the aircraft.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Indian government had acceleratedits efforts to buy Rafale jet after Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had shot downtwo fighter jets of Indian Air Force (IAF) in its territory on February 27over violation of Line of Control (LoC).
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Indian prime minister Narendra Modi had said, “The outcome of the entireepisode could have been different if previous governments had purchasedRafale fighter jets.
While addressing an event in New Delhi, Modi had said, “The country istoday feeling the absence of Rafale fighter jets.”
