Rafale Marine Lands on INS Vikrant for the First Time

A French Rafale M carrier-based fighter has landed aboard the Indian Navy’s indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant for the first time, touching down on its maiden attempt on October 29 in the first shipboard phase of trials meant to clear the jet for operations from India’s two ski-jump carriers. The Indian Navy released video of the arrested landing and described the ongoing trials as the first steps towards operationalising the aircraft in its service. The aircraft involved belongs to France, since the first of India’s own 26 jets is not expected before the end of 2028. The landing is the most significant step yet towards ending the Indian Navy’s total reliance on Russian-built fighters for carrier aviation, a role the MiG-29K has filled for more than a decade.

The landing follows shore-based take-off and approach trials at the Shore-Based Test Facility at INS Hansa in Goa, which began around October 22 to validate the modifications needed for the jet to operate from Indian decks. India and France signed an intergovernmental agreement on April 28, 2025, for 22 single-seat and four twin-seat Rafale M fighters valued at about 63,000 crore rupees. The package covers pilot training, simulators, weapons and long-term maintenance, as well as additional equipment for the Dassault Rafale fleet the Indian Air Force already operates. The French fighter had won the requirement after a 12-day campaign from a 283-metre mock ski jump at the same facility from January 6, 2022, with the Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet demonstrating from the ramp that May before losing the competition.

The trials matter considerably because the Rafale M was designed for catapult launches from the French carrier Charles de Gaulle, while INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya launch aircraft from a ski jump and recover them with arrestor wires. That configuration limits take-off weight, and therefore fuel and payload, which is why the shore trials and the deck landing were needed before any operational clearance. The naval variant carries a strengthened airframe and landing gear and a specialised arrestor hook, and will give the Indian Navy the RBE2 active electronically scanned array radar, the SPECTRA electronic warfare suite, Meteor and MICA air-to-air missiles, SCALP cruise missiles and AM39 Exocet anti-ship missiles. This is a far wider strike and air superiority envelope than the MiG-29K provides, although neither Indian carrier will match the catapult-equipped Fujian at the head of China’s three-carrier fleet.

INS Vikrant was commissioned on September 2, 2022, as the first aircraft carrier designed and built in India, while INS Vikramaditya, a converted Soviet Kiev class carrier, entered Indian service in 2013. The current campaign had been planned to bring a French Navy pilot aboard before the end of 2026, with a second trials campaign planned for early next year and Indian Navy pilots and technicians due to train in France before deliveries begin. The order also ties India to the Rafale family for decades, with France now set to develop its own successor alone after the collapse of FCAS. Full delivery of India’s 26 aircraft is expected by 2030, and until then the 45 MiG-29K fighters ordered in two batches remain the only jets either Indian carrier can embark.