Meet the fighter pilot who made Rafale's India journey possible

Air Commodore Rather turned into a celebrity of sorts after he became the first Indian fighter pilot to fly a Rafale jet. But that's not the only reason why Defence Minister Rajnath Singh referred to Hilal Ahmad Rather as "hero". Rather has been working with determination to ensure India gets its hands on the fighter aircraft at the earliest and he worked in his personal capacity to weaponise the aircraft to better suit Indian requirements.

SRINAGAR: For almost four years since India concluded an Inter-Governmental Agreement with France in September 2016 for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets, one man has been working with dogged determination to ensure India gets its hands on the fighter aircraft at the earliest. From take-off of the first batch of five Rafale fighter jets from France on Monday, successfully landing at the Ambala Air Base on Wednesday, all credit is due to one man whose persistence made this possible - Air Commodore Hilal Ahmad Rather.

Who's Hilal Rather

Currently, serving as India's Air Attache in France, Air Commodore Rather turned into a celebrity of sorts after he became the first Indian fighter pilot to fly a Rafale jet. But that's not the only reason why Defence Minister Rajnath Singh referred to Hilal Ahmad Rather as "hero".

The major reason for all praises for Air Commodore Rather is because he invested all of 2019 in ensuring India gets the best deal out of the agreement. He worked in his personal capacity to weaponise the aircraft to better suit Indian requirements and reportedly helped the project management team add 13 customisations to the Indian version of the jets. Additionally, he is also said to have supervised the refuelling training of 152 Indian Air Force (IAF) technicians and 27 fighter pilots with French tanks.

No wonder the touchdown was seen as a 'personal triumph' for Air Commodore Rather. 52-year-old Air Commodore Rather is said to be the best Flying Officer the IAF has ever had.

Born into a middle-class family of six to (retd) J&K DSP Mohammad Abdullah Rather, Air Commodore Rather is a native of Bakshiabad area in south Kashmir's Anantnag district. Air Commodore Rather did his basic schooling at a local Montessori school and later joined Sainik School Nagrota in Jammu, and eventually joined National Defence Academy (NDA). He also graduated with a distinction from the Air War College in the US. It is also reported that he won the famed Sword of Honour during his time in NDA.

He was commissioned in IAF as a fighter pilot on December 17, 1988. Within the next five years, he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant and went on to become a Wing Commander in 2004, Group Captain in 2016 and eventually went on to hold the position of Air Commodore in 2019. During his more than three decades of impeccable service at the Indian Air Force, Air Commodore Rather has held a record of 3,000 accident-free flying hours or a number of aerial beats such as Mirage-2000, MIG-21 as well as the Kiran aircraft. He is also known for having commanded a Mirage-2000 Squadron as well as a front-line Air Force Base in his career.

He has also been awarded the Vayu Sena medal in 2010 and Vishisht Seva medal in 2016.

What do his neighbours say?

At Air Commodore Rather's own village, Bakshiabad, there are no celebrations, no jubilations for obvious reasons as the area falls in the sensitive category on the security front. But locals, neighbours, and friends of Rather, who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, said that Hilal has been a dreamer since his childhood and he would always talk about aeroplanes, helicopters and jets when he was a kid.

"He was an intelligent student and today he got what he yearned for. Today, his parents both father and mother must be happy in their graves as their last child has made them feel proud," said a close relative of Rather, requesting anonymity.

He further said, "Hilal's elder brother lives along with his family members at their ancestral house. But he is not keeping well from the past few years. Hilal has made us proud but we can't celebrate as this village is known to be a sensitive area from a security point of view."

"I still remember that we had to rent out a two-room flat in Jammu's Nagrota for his marriage in 1993 for safety reasons. A lot of things have changed. He has made us proud and can be an inspiration for local youth to do well in their respective fields," he added.

Meanwhile, 12 IAF fighter pilots have completed training on the Rafale fighter Jets in France so far and few more are being trained to fly the newly inducted fighter jet.

The Rafale Deal

India began the process to buy a fleet of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) in 2007 after the defence ministry, headed then by AK Antony, cleared the proposal from the IAF. The contenders for the mega deal were Lockheed Martin's F-16s, Eurofighter Typhoon, Russia's MiG-35, Sweden's Gripen, Boeing's F/A-18s and Dassault Aviation's Rafale. After a long-drawn process, bids were opened in December 2012 and Dassault Aviation emerged as L-1 (lowest bidder). In the original proposal, 18 planes were to be manufactured in France and 108 in India in collaboration with the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

There were lengthy negotiations between the then UPA government and Dassault on prices and transfer of technology. The final negotiations continued till early 2014 but the deal could not go through.

The NDA government inked a Rs 59,000-crore deal on September 23, 2016, to procure 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation as an emergency acquisition.

The deal was sealed primarily to check the depleting combat capability of the IAF as the number of its fighter squadrons had come down to a worrying 31 against the authorised strength of at least 42.

Read:'Multi-purpose' Rafale will boost IAF's capabilities: Expert