Dassault naval Rafale aircraft in India for capability demonstration

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<strong>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.</strong></p>
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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.</p>
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The Rafale is one of the two contenders in the race for the 57 naval fighter aircraft tenders being planned by the Indian Navy.</p>
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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.</p>
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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.</p>
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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.</p>
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The indigenous LCA Navy has also taken off and landed on the INS Vikramaditya and shown its capabilities.</p>
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