A Billion-Dollar Jet Without Its Killer Missile: Was ‘Game-Changer’ Rafale Deal Only Half The Story?

New Delhi: When India signed the much-talked about Rafale fighter jet deal with France in 2016, it was pitched as the ultimate answer to Pakistan’s F-16s armed with AIM (Air Intercept Missile)-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile) missiles. The government claimed these 36 flyaway jets, though fewer than the 126 originally planned, were more advanced, lethal and ready for any confrontation in the subcontinent’s skies. But buried beneath that promise was a critical omission: the Rafales arrived without their most powerful weapon, the Meteor air-to-air missile.

The Meteor, a European beyond-visual-range missile built by the Matra BAE Dynamics Alenia (MBDA), top missile producing companies in the world, can strike targets nearly 200 kilometres away. It is what gives the Rafal