3 Of 4 Remaining Rafale Jets Will Arrive On Time In February
Hyderabad: The Court of Inquiry being conducted by a tri-services inquiry team will be a fair process and mandate given to it is to investigate every single angle of the incident, Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari said on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Combined Graduation Parade at the Air force Academy at Dundigal near here, Chaudhari said the probe would take “a few more weeks” and he would not like to preempt any of the findings of the court of inquiry by commenting on it.
“I would not like to preempt any of the findings of the court of inquiry, because it’s a thorough process. The mandate given to him (Air Marshal Manavendra Singh) is to investigate every single angle and look into every single aspect of what could have gone wrong and come out with the suitable recommendations and findings,” he said.
He was replying to a query on the details related to the investigation and the situation and circumstances of the chopper crash that killed General Bipin Rawat, India’s first Chief of Defence Staff, his wife and 12 other armed forces personnel, at Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on December 8.
“Let me assure you that it is a very, very fair process, the entire court of inquiry,” he said.
Subsequent to the tragedy, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had informed Parliament that a tri-services inquiry team led by Air Marshal Manavendra Singh started investigation into the helicopter crash.
Earlier in his address during the passing-out parade, the Air Force chief said the nature of warfare is undergoing fundamental changes and India’s security dynamics involved multifaceted threats and challenges which would require building multi-domain capabilities.
He also said the Air Force is on the cusp of transformation into a highly potent air force with many new injections such as Rafale jets, Apache helicopters and a wide variety of sophisticated systems.
“The nature of warfare is undergoing fundamental changes. New technology and radically new doctrines have emerged in the last few years. India’s security dynamics involve multifaceted threats and challenges. It will require us to build multi-domain capabilities and execute all our operations simultaneously and in shortened timeframes,” Chaudhari said.
He said out of the 36 Rafale aircraft for which India had signed a contract with France, 32 have been delivered and out of the remaining four, three will arrive in India on time, that is, in February next year.
He further stated that the last Rafale aircraft which will have India-specific enhancements will be delivered after all its trials are conducted.
