President Droupadi Murmu To Take Sortie In Rafale Fighter Jet Tomorrow

President Droupadi Murmu will on Wednesday take a sortie in Rafale fighter aircraft from the Ambala Air Force base in Haryana, Rashtrapati Bhavan announced on Tuesday.

“The President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu will visit Ambala, Haryana tomorrow (October 29, 2025), where she will take a Sortie in Rafale,” Rashtrapati Bhavan said in a statement.

She will be the first President to fly in IAF’s most modern Rafale fighter aircraft. Earlier in April 2023, President Murmu, who is also the Supreme Commander of Defence Forces of India, took a sortie in Sukhoi 30 MKI fighter aircraft at the Tezpur Air Force Station in Assam. She was airborne for around 30 minutes, flying over the Brahmaputra and Tezpur valley with the Himalayas on one side.

President

Murmu is the third President and the second woman President to undertake such a sortie. Prior to her, former Presidents like Pratibha Patil and APJ Abdul Kalam had also flown in the fighter jet. Kalam and Patil carried out sorties in Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jets from the Air Force Station at Lohegaon, near Pune, on June 8, 2006, and November 25, 2009, respectively.

All About Rafale

Manufactured by French aerospace major Dassault Aviation, Rafale fighter aircraft were formally inducted into the Indian Air Force in September 2020 at the Air Force Station, Ambala. India currently has 36 Rafale jets.

The Rafale jets were used in Operation Sindoor, India’s precision strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan and PoK following the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians. The strikes killed at least 10 family members of JeM chief Masood Azhar and four close aides.

India is planning to induct more Rafale jets for the Indian Air Force in its arsenal in the near future, of which it has already procured 36 jets. India in fact will now soon get 26 more Rafale M (Marine) jets from France for deployment on its aircraft carriers, INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya.

Dassault Aviation is also planning to set up a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility for the M-88 engines that power the Rafales. This facility is expected to be located in Hyderabad. Indian companies, including Tata Group, are likely to play a key role in the local manufacturing and support infrastructure.