New Delhi: Three Rafale jets, part of a fleet of the French Air and Space Force, made a strategic stopover at the Indian Air Force (IAF)’s Sulur base in Tamil Nadu.
The French fleet made a technical stopover at the Air Force Station in Sulur on August 10 and 11 during a long-distance deployment from metropolitan France to the Pacific Ocean, a French readout said on Thursday.
The support provided by the Indian Air Force to the French force reflected the implementation of the reciprocal logistics support agreement signed by France and India in 2018 to boost military cooperation, it said.
The French Air and Space Force is carrying out a major long-range mission in the Indo-Pacific, code-named Pegase 22, from August 10 to September 18.
“The first stage of this mission aims to demonstrate France’s capacity for long-distance air power projection by deploying an Air Force contingent from metropolitan France to the French territory of New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean in less than 72 hours (10th-12th August),” the statement said.
“To achieve this unprecedented 16,600-km deployment, the Air Force contingent made a technical stopover in India, at Air Force Station Sulur,” it said.
