France-India lock horns over ‘Rafale misadventure’

ISLAMABAD: What happens when two allies lock horns over a major defence matter? This question is not merely hypothetical in the realm of global politics as the Dassault Rafale fighter plane is at the center of an ongoing dispute between India and France.

This saga began with a recent conflict between India and Pakistan. During the conflict, Pakistan Air Force shot down six Indian fighter jets among which three were Rafale jets.

According to regional and western reports as well as analysts from the United States and France, PAF’s J-10C squadrons successfully downed multiple Indian aircraft in the opening salvo of the conflict.

In addition to the suspected loss of at least three Rafales, India is also believed to have lost one Su-30MKI, one MiG-29 and one Mirage 2000, bringing the total to six confirmed or alleged shootdowns, most of which occurred during India’s deep-strike operations against Pakistani territory.

Indian Chief of Defence Staff General Chauhan confirmed that Indian jets were downed in the opening hours of the conflict, but did not say how many were lost. “What is important is not the jet being down, but why they were being downed. What mistakes were made — those are important. Numbers are not important,” Chauhan told Bloomberg TV.

According to reports, Dassault, the French manufacturer of Rafale, has declined to provide India with the jet’s source code, further straining relations between the two nations. To defend Rafale’s reputation, Paris is also countering New Delhi’s claims by attributing any issues to maintenance and pilot error instead of flaws in France’s top fighter jet.

Compounding the situation, the Indian government is blocking Dassault’s audit team from inspecting India’s Rafale fleet. Dassault’s auditors had wished to evaluate the Indian Rafales to verify that there were no technical issues that the Indian Air Force (IAF) may have overlooked.

The Indians seem likely to be uneasy about this request. According to Indian reports, New Delhi is understandably wary that the French auditors may intend to attribute the lackluster performance of Dassault Rafales to the Indian Air Force itself.

However, the situation doesn’t conclude here.

The performance of Dassault Rafale fighter jets during the India-Pakistan conflict has drawn the attention of other nations. The Indonesian government, worried about the purported deficiencies of the aircraft, has begun its own audit of a recent agreement with Dassault. This incident has also prompted Europe to reassess its military strategies. Meanwhile, it was reported that Dassault shares dropped after reports of downing came in.