Paris
\nA deepening rift has emerged between France and India over the performance of the Dassault Rafale fighter jet, following its reported losses during the recent Pakistan-India conflict.
\nDuring the conflict, Pakistan Air Force shot down six Indian fighter jets, including at least three Rafales.
\nAccording to regional and Western media, as well as defence analysts from the United States and France, PAF J-10C squadrons downed multiple Indian fighter jets in the opening phase of hostilities.
\nThe incident has ignited diplomatic tension between the two long-time defence partners, raising fresh questions over the credibility of France\u2019s premier combat aircraft.
\nIn addition to the suspected loss of at least three Rafales, India is also believed to have lost one Su-30MKI, one MiG-29 and one Mirage 2000, bringing the total to six confirmed or alleged shootdowns, most of which occurred during India\u2019s deep-strike operations inside Pakistani territory.
\nIndian Chief of Defence Staff General Chauhan confirmed that Indian jets were downed in the opening hours of the conflict, but did not say how many were lost.
\n\u201cWhat is important is not the jet being down, but why they were being downed. What mistakes were made \u2014 those are important. Numbers are not important,\u201d Chauhan told Bloomberg TV.
\nAccording to reports, Dassault, the French manufacturer of Rafale, has declined to provide India with the jet\u2019s source code, further straining relations between the two nations. To defend Rafale\u2019s reputation, Paris is also countering New Delhi\u2019s claims by attributing any issues to maintenance and pilot error instead of flaws in France\u2019s top fighter jet.
\nCompounding the situation, the Indian government is blocking Dassault\u2019s audit team from inspecting India\u2019s Rafale fleet. Dassault\u2019s auditors had wished to evaluate the Indian Rafales to verify that there were no technical issues that the Indian Air Force (IAF) may have overlooked.
\nThe Indians seem likely to be uneasy about this request. According to Indian reports, New Delhi is understandably wary that the French auditors may intend to attribute the lacklustre performance of Dassault Rafales to the Indian Air Force itself.
\nHowever, the situation doesn\u2019t conclude here.
\nThe performance of Dassault Rafale fighter jets during the Pakistan-India conflict has drawn the attention of other nations. The Indonesian government, worried about the purported deficiencies of the aircraft, has begun its own audit of a recent agreement with Dassault.
\nThis incident has also prompted Europe to reassess its military strategies. Meanwhile, it was reported that Dassault shares dropped after reports of the downing came in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Paris A deepening rift has emerged between France and India over the performance of the Dassault Rafale fighter jet, following its reported losses during the recent Pakistan-India conflict. During the conflict, Pakistan Air Force shot down six Indian fighter jets, including at least three Rafales. According to regional and Western media, as well as defence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-482509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n