A Rafale naval combat aircraft landed in Goa on Thursday evening to demonstrate the capabilities of the combat jet to carry out operations from the Indian Navy aircraft carriers.

A Rafale combat aircraft of the Dassault Aviation landed in Goa evening to give a demonstration to rate the Indian Navy on its abilities to carry out operations from the Indian aircraft carriers including the in-service INS Vikramaditya and the soon to be inducted INS Vikrant, Navy officials said here. The aircraft would be carrying out demonstrations with a full load including a dummy weapons package from the Shore-based Test Facility (SBTF) at the Hansa naval air station here, they said.

The Rafale is one of the two contenders in the race for the 57 naval fighter aircraft tenders being planned by the Indian Navy.

The demonstration by the Rafale is before the issue of tender for the project as the Indian Navy wants to see whether the Rafale or the F-18 would be able to operate with full capacity from Indian aircraft carriers or not.

Once the demonstration is complete from both sides, the Navy would finalize the parameters and if required, can go in for a government-to-government tender for the acquisition of these planes, defense sources said.

The Indian Navy is looking for the right type of fighter aircraft to operate from its carriers as it is also searching for the replacement of its fleet of Russian-origin MiG-29K fighter aircraft.

The indigenous LCA Navy has also taken off and landed on the INS Vikramaditya and shown its capabilities.

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