nato: Indian Rafale fighter jets to participate in French Military exercise with NATO allies

Indian Rafale fighter jets are set to join a French military exercise that includes thousands of NATO troops. The fighter jets are likely to arrive in France by mid-April to take part in Orion 23, a multi-dimensional wargame that includes ground troops, warships including aircraft carriers and combat aircraft. The war game kicked off in February and is scheduled to end by early May.This will be the first foreign outing for the Indian Rafale jets, 36 of which are in service with the Air Force . Rafale is India's most potent fighter aircraft and is equipped with Meteor air-to-air missiles with a range of 200 km and SCALP air-to-ground missiles with a range of over 300 km.India and France hold regular bilateral military exercises, including the Garuda series of aerial drills but have been increasingly taking part in multilateral war games recently. In mid-March, the Indian Navy took part in Ex La Perouse in the Indian Ocean, which included the US, Japan, Australia and the UK.Orion 23 (Operation for Resilient, Interoperable, high-intensity combat-Oriented and Innovative armed forces) is a large-scale military training drill taking place under the shadow of the Russia-Ukraine war and has been described as preparation for a possible future conflict with Russia.Billed as the largest war drill being conducted by the European nation in decades, the exercise involves close to 19,000 troops from France and its NATO allies and spans across land, sea, air and cyberspace.The scenario that the war game has been set finds similarities to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. For the purpose of drills, a fictional country 'Arland', which is allied to France, is being attacked by its much larger neighbour named 'Mercure'. After being weakened by a destabilising campaign that includes setting up of a separatist militant force by Mercure , Arland appeals to its allies for help against an invasion. The war game in the final phase will simulate an invasion of Arland and the intervention of allies like France and other NATO troops to counter a determined air-land attack by Mercure.The French defence ministry has said that Orion is not a NATO exercise. "It is a French exercise, but it is participating in the collective defence of NATO. Its planning and implementation are inspired by our experience of the major exercises of the alliance," an official presentation reads.