On 13th April 2023, the Ministry of Defence published a press release to announce that the Indian Air Force will participate in Exercise Orion at Mont-de-Marsan, an Air Force base of the French Air and Space Force (FASF). The ministry said that the Indian contingent led by Rafale fighter jets will leave on 14th April 2023. This is the first time that newly inducted Rafale jets will participate in a military exercise abroad, taking the place generally taken by Sukhoi jets.
The exercise will be conducted from 17 April to 05 May 2023, with the IAF Contingent comprising four Rafale, two Boeing C-17 Globemaster heavy cargo aircraft and two Russian Ilyushin IL-78 midair refuelers and 165 air warriors.
This will be the first time in the last 15 years that the Sukhoi Su-30MKI of the Indian Air Force will not be participating in a military exercise, indicating that the Rafale jets are ready to replace the Russian jets in a battle. Indian Air Force has around 260 Sukhoi Su-30MKI jets stations across the country, including air bases near the Chinese border in the North East. Some of the jets are made by HAL under licence in India, while others are imported from Russia.
Besides the IAF and the FASF, Air Forces from Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain and the United States of America would also be flying in this multilateral exercise. Participation in this exercise would further enrich the employment philosophy of the Indian Air Force, by imbibing the best practices from other Air Forces, said the ministry.
IAF’s spokesperson Wing Commander Ashish Moghe said, “This would be the first overseas exercise for the IAF’s Rafale aircraft. Participation in this exercise would further enrich the employment philosophy of the Indian Air Force by imbibing the best practices from other air forces.”
Orion 2023 is France’s largest drill, in which allied nations, like India, take part in addition to NATO partners. Over 12,000 NATO forces are taking part in the subsequent phase of the exercise. Its main objective would be defence activities on land, in the air, at sea, and in cyberspace.
Orion 2023 is based on a NATO scenario intended to understand the various stages of modern war and will be on a scale unseen in recent decades. Its goal is to refocus the French military services along with their numerous branches and administrative levels on a combined, multi-domain (MDO) exercise in a challenging environment within an international joint forces framework.
India bought 36 of the 4.5-generation fighters from France in 2016 for around $8 billion. In October 2019, India received its first batch of Rafales at the airforce base in Ambala, Haryana. In September 2020, the aircraft was assigned to an IAF squadron.
Dassault Aviation of France completed the delivery of all 36 Rafale fighter planes to the IAF in 2022, with the other unit based at Hashimara, West Bengal. The Ambala squadron safeguards Indian airspace in northern borders, while the Hashimara squadron covers the northeast region.
Apart from Dassault Rafale and Sukhoi Su-20MKI, other fighter jets operated by IAF are MiG 21, Mig-29, Dassault Mirage 2000, Jaguar, and HAL Tejas. The Sukhoi is the main fighter of the IAF with the largest number of aircraft.