A Rafale Marine Fighter Landed on India's Home-Built Carrier INS Vikrant at the First Attempt on 29 October 2026, the First Shipboard Step for the Navy's 26 Ordered Jets

A Rafale Marine fighter landed on INS Vikrant, India’s first home-built aircraft carrier, at the first attempt on Thursday 29 October 2026, and later took off again from the ship. The Indian Navy announced it the next day on X and released footage. Its post said: “The ongoing trials mark the first steps towards operationalisation of the aircraft in the Indian Navy.”

The jet is the carrier version of the French Rafale, the type the Navy has ordered 26 of. It was designed for ships that launch aircraft with catapults, and Vikrant has none, so the Navy has been testing how the jet copes with her ski-jump and arrester wires.

What the Navy said happened

The Navy’s post gives two facts: a Rafale Marine landed on board on its “maiden attempt” on 29 October, and the trials are continuing. The Aviationist, a specialist aviation site, and Baird Maritime, which covers naval shipping, add that the landing was an arrested one: the jet’s tailhook caught one of the steel wires across the deck. Both report that the aircraft then launched from the carrier’s ski-jump ramp.

The Aviationist says the jet was reportedly flown by a Dassault test pilot. The Navy’s post does not name the pilot. Aerospace Global News and The Aviationist both report that the Navy released footage of the landing.

Why a ski-jump deck is a different test

The Press Information Bureau (PIB), the government’s press agency, described Vikrant at her commissioning on 2 September 2022 as using a mode called Short Take Off But Arrested Recovery, or STOBAR. A ski-jump ramp at the bow launches aircraft, and arrester wires on the deck stop them on landing. Her air wing, PIB said, can include up to 30 aircraft, among them the MiG-29K fighter. The ship’s own story is told in our article on INS Vikrant.

The Rafale Marine was developed for France’s nuclear-powered carrier Charles de Gaulle, which uses catapults to throw aircraft off the bow and wires to catch them on return, according to Outlook and Baird Maritime. The wires are familiar to the jet. The ramp is the new part, so the Navy tested it ashore first.

That shore test is at INS Hansa in Goa, where a Shore-Based Test Facility reproduces a carrier’s ski-jump and arrester wires, as Raksha Anirveda describes it. Defence officials confirmed trials there in the days before the carrier landing, according to Marine Insight, and The Aviationist dates the first images of the jet at Goa to 22 October 2026.

It was the second Goa campaign for the type. In January 2022 a Rafale Marine was tested for 12 days at INS Hansa using a 283-metre mock ski-jump, the French ambassador told reporters on 1 February 2022, according to a PTI report in Business Standard. He said the take-off tests had gone very well. The same report says Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet was expected to go through similar tests.

Vikrant has been landing fixed-wing jets since 6 February 2023, when a MiG-29K and the naval version of the Light Combat Aircraft made the first landings, The Aviationist and India Sentinels both report. The MiG-29K added a night landing on 24 May 2023. India Sentinels counts the Rafale Marine as the third fixed-wing type to land on the ship.

The order behind the trials

The Defence Acquisition Council, the Ministry of Defence’s procurement body, granted its Acceptance of Necessity for 26 Rafale Marine aircraft on 13 July 2023. That is an in-principle approval, and the PIB release says the price and terms were still to be negotiated with the French government.

On 28 April 2025 the two governments signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and France’s Minister of Armed Forces signed it, and the papers were exchanged at Nausena Bhawan in New Delhi, PIB says. It covers 26 aircraft, 22 single-seaters and four twin-seaters, along with training, a simulator, associated equipment, weapons and performance-based logistics. It also includes extra equipment for the Indian Air Force’s existing Rafale fleet.

PIB’s explainer of 29 April 2025 puts the value at about Rs 63,000 crore (Rs 630 billion). The Tribune gives Rs 64,000 crore. Baird Maritime describes the four twin-seaters as shore-based trainers. The wider relationship is covered in our piece on India and France.

What is built and kept in India

PIB’s release says the agreement includes transfer of technology for integrating indigenous weapons on the aircraft, a production facility for the Rafale fuselage in India, and Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul facilities in India for the aircraft’s engine, sensors and weapons. The ministry expects the deal to generate thousands of jobs and revenue for many micro, small and medium enterprises.

The Navy’s jet also shares much with the Air Force’s. India bought 36 Rafales for the Air Force under a 2016 deal, and the first five arrived in July 2020, PIB’s explainer says. The release says the common type will improve joint operational capability and optimise training and logistics for both services.

What the jet adds to the deck

PIB’s explainer lists the Rafale Marine’s missions as air defence, maritime strike, reconnaissance and strikes on shore targets. It gives a top speed of Mach 1.8 and a service ceiling of 50,000 feet. The sensors are the Thales RBE2 AESA radar (an electronically steered radar with no moving antenna) and the SPECTRA electronic warfare suite. Listed weapons are the MICA and Meteor air-to-air missiles, the SCALP-EG land-attack missile and the Exocet AM39 anti-ship missile.

The jets are meant to fly from both of the Navy’s carriers, INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya. The Navy’s current carrier fighter is the Russian-built MiG-29K, and Raksha Anirveda says the Rafale Marine is meant to join it in the air wing. PIB’s explainer calls the Rafale Marine an interim solution until India’s own Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter is ready.

What the trials still have to settle

PIB’s release of 28 April 2025 says delivery of the aircraft would be completed by 2030, with crews trained in France and India. It names no start date. The Tribune reported that deliveries would begin in 2028, while Marine Insight, citing defence officials, and Aerospace Global News put the start at the end of 2028 or early 2029. The trials are separate from those deliveries.

The New Indian Express, as reported by Outlook and Baird Maritime, says one fit problem is on the hangar side. The Rafale Marine’s wings do not fold, and its wingspan of 10.9 metres is wider than Vikrant’s aircraft lifts, which are about 10 metres across and were built around the folding-wing MiG-29K. The French defence ministry lists the Rafale M’s wingspan as 10.8 metres. According to the newspaper, the lifts are to be modified, the wingtip pylons may be removed when jets move between decks, and specialised equipment is being fitted to the ship.

Raksha Anirveda writes that a successful landing does not by itself settle training, maintenance, weapons or sustained operations at sea. The only trial result the sources report is the landing and the take-off. The Navy’s 30 October post calls the trials ongoing.