India’s President, Droupadi Murmu, made history on Wednesday by undertaking a fighter-jet sortie in a French-built Dassault Rafale from Air Force Station Ambala in Haryana.
As the ceremonial Supreme Commander of India’s armed forces, Murmu was welcomed at the base with a full guard of honour and donned a G-suit and helmet before boarding the two-seater fighter for the flight.The flight was carried out by the IAF’s 17 Squadron the “Golden Arrows”, which first inducted the Rafale jets at Ambala in 2020.
The sortie lasted roughly 30–40 minutes, covering about 200 kilometres at an altitude near 15,000 feet and speeds around 700 km/h. With this flight, Murmu becomes the first President of India to have flown in two different types of IAF fighter aircraft, the earlier been a Sukhoi‑30 MKI in April 2023.Defense analysts say that the event symbolically underscores the growing capabilities of the Indian Air Force and the strategic value of the Rafale fleet, which took part in Operation Sindoor, a precision-strike operation against terror infrastructure in Pakistan-controlled regions earlier this year.
President Murmu described the experience as “unforgettable” and noted that it instilled in her “a renewed sense of pride in the nation’s defence capabilities”. Her decision to undertake the sortie is seen as part of a larger gesture of support to the armed forces and a reaffirmation of India’s advancing aerial power.
