Rafale M to begin Ski-Jump take-off trials for Indian Navy

The Rafale M (naval version) will be tested this week in India to determine if it is a valid candidate to form the future  carrier air wing of the INS Vikrant aircraft carrier.

Hindustan Times reported that the Indian Navy will conduct flight tests of the Rafale-Maritime fighter at the ground test facility at the INS Hansa base in Goa, starting Jan. 6, as part of its strategy to identify the best warplane to suit the indigenously built 40,000-ton aircraft carrier. The IAC 1 (Indian Aircraft Carrier 1) is based at the Cochin shipyard and is currently undergoing sea trials in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.

According to officials with knowledge of the matter, the Rafale M fighter will undergo an intensive 12-day test campaign at the INS Hansa facility, which features a 283-meter-long runway with a ski-jump, to simulate operations on the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.  The Rafale M fighter is the main weapon system of the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle and has also demonstrated its interoperability with U.S. aircraft carriers as early as 2008.

The Indian Navy is also planning to test the U.S. F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet fighter at the same facility, reportedly in March, as an alternative option to the Rafale-M. The Boeing Super Hornet is a proven carrier-based multi-role fighter for the U.S. Navy, which has also found export customers deploying them from land bases.

The Indian Navy currently operates two squadrons of MiG-29Ks aboard its only aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, but according to local sources, the Russian aircraft face maintenance problems due to lack of availability of spare parts.

The LCA-M (embarked version of the HAL Tejas) is still under development, with two demonstrator fighters being tested from INS Vikramaditya and the Goa-based ground test facility to provide input for the future definitive twin-engine carrier-based fighter, the TEDBF.

The TEDBF (Twin engine deck based fighter) will be a larger, twin-engine development derived from the Tejas, bearing a strong resemblance to the Rafale. It will have a maximum speed of Mach 1.6 and a service ceiling of 60,000 feet (18,200 meters). Its maximum takeoff weight will be 26 tons (greater than the MiG-29 and Rafale, less than the Super Hornet), deployed wingspan of 11.2 meters, folded wing span of 7.2 and a length of 16.3 meters.

According to India’s Aeronautical Development Agency (DRDO), the first test flight of the indigenous twin-engine fighter is expected before 2026 and it is expected to join the Indian Navy before 2031.

While the decision on which fighter will equip the IAC-1 will be based on flight tests, the fact remains that the Rafale M is lighter and smaller in size than the F-18, can make use of the Meteor long-range missile and would share logistics with the Indian Air Force’s Rafale. Naval aviation experts also claim that structural modifications will be required on the IAC-1 (future INS Vikrant) to enable the F-18 to be transported from the hangar to the flight deck, due to its comparatively larger fuselage.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected to commission IAC -1 as INS Vikrant on August 15, 2022, the 75th anniversary of India’s independence, Hindustan Times speculates that the Indian Navy may ask the French aircraft manufacturers to lease four or five Rafale M aircraft in 2022 to make the carrier operational, which would show a strong preference for French fighter over American one.