NEW DELHI – Indian Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa on Monday while commentingon Pakistani jets entry Indian airspace on February 27 said the favourableresult could have been more decisive had the Indian Air Force inductedRafale jets in time.
Highlighting Pakistani jets strike the IAF chief said that Rafale jetscould have been even more effective. “The results would have been skewed inour favour had we inducted our Rafale aircraft in time,” he was quoted assaying by news agency ANI while delivering the Arjan Singh memorial lecturehere.
Pakistani jets had crossed into Indian airspace after Indian failed strikein Balakot. “Post our strike on training camp, to thwart impending strikeon our soil, PAF launched a riposte on 27 Feb against Indian militarytargets.
India had scrambled Mig-21 Bison and Mirage-2000 fighter jets against a PAFfighter contingent
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Dhanoa credited the success to the fact that both Mig-21 Bisons and theMirage-2000 had been upgraded. He however said that Rafale could have madean even bigger impact in the dogfight.
India’s purchase of 36 Rafale jets in fly-away condition from France’sDassault Aviation has been under a shroud of controversy with Congressaccusing the government of – among others – paying an inflated price. Thegovernment has maintained that it is a false accusation while alsohighlighting the need for the twin-engine Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft(MMRCA).
