India buying Rafale-M will bring our navies closer: Top French navy officer

With India looking to finalise the Rafale Marine shortly, a top French officer said on Saturday that having the same fighter aircraft will bring two forces together.

The French Carrier Strike Group Commander Rear Admiral Jacques said, "Working together with the same kind of aircraft means sharing the same kind of lessons learned, sharing process, building together better views of the same tools...working on the same aircraft will get the two navies closer together."

India is close to signing a deal for 26 Rafale Marine fighter jets for operations from the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.

In an interview with ANI, he said the French Navy and the Indian Air Force will hold to "Running a carrier is a very specific job to do, you have to train...it is a dedicated job...when we will leave Goa at the end of the week, we will work on serial that will involve aircraft coming from the Indian Air Force...it will be an interaction of short time."

French Navy aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle is at the Mormugao port trust jetty. The carrier strike group elements including the Rafale Marine fighter aircraft will hold an exercise with Indian Air Force fighter aircraft in the next few days while the warships will hold the 42nd edition of the bilateral Varuna exercise while returning from the Pacific Ocean after a series of exercises with allies including Indonesia there.