A carrier fighter is only as good as the deck it lands on, and India has bought a fighter designed for somebody else’s deck. Now the Indian Navy has started finding out exactly what that means.
Defence sources told the news agency ANI, as reported by The Week on 22 October 2026, that the Navy has begun trials of the Rafale Marine, or Rafale M, in Goa. The aim is to identify the modifications the jet will need to operate from INS Vikrant, India’s first home-built aircraft carrier. Twenty-six Rafale M are on order, with deliveries due from late 2028.
Informazioni rapide
Aeromobili: Dassault Rafale Marine (Rafale M), twin-engine carrier fighter
Ordine: 26 jets: 22 single-seat, 4 twin-seat, signed 28 April 2025
Valore: About ₹63,000 crore (roughly $7.5 billion)
Trials: Under way in Goa, reported 21-22 October 2026
Scopo: Identify modifications needed to fly from INS Vikrant
Carriers: INS Vikrant, later also INS Vikramaditya
Consegne: Expected from late 2028 or early 2029, complete by 2030
What the Rafale M trials are testing
The Rafale M was built for the French Navy’s Charles de Gaulle, which launches its jets with catapults and catches them with arrester wires. INS Vikrant has no catapult. Its aircraft take off under their own power up a ski-jump ramp and land on arrester wires, a layout known as STOBAR. Every carrier jet also has to fit the ship’s lifts, hangar, deck markings, fuel and weapons handling.
The Rafale M trials in Goa are meant to work through those details before the first Indian jets arrive. Reports differ on exactly where the flying is taking place. Some outlets, including Daijiworld and India TV, describe the trials as being conducted aboard INS Vikrant off Goa, while Indian Masterminds, citing Defence.in, places them at the Shore Based Test Facility in Goa, the land-based ski-jump at INS Hansa. The Navy has not published details, and which aircraft are being used has not been officially stated.
WION reports on the Indian Navy’s Rafale M carrier trials, October 2026.
India has done this before, on land
The Rafale M is not new to Goa. In January 2022, during the competition for the Navy’s carrier fighter, two French Navy Rafale M flew from the Shore Based Test Facility at INS Hansa and demonstrated that the type could take off from a ski-jump and land as a STOBAR carrier requires, Naval News reported. That campaign helped the Rafale M beat the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet to the contract.
India signed for 26 aircraft on 28 April 2025, its largest defence deal with France and the first export order for the naval Rafale. The contract also covers weapons, spares, support for the 36 Rafales of the Indian Air Force and a facility in India to build Rafale fuselages.
Why the Indian Navy needs the Rafale M
IL Indian Naval Air Arm currently flies the Russian-built MiG-29K from its two carriers, and the type has suffered from poor serviceability. The Rafale M brings the Thales RBE2 AESA radar, the SPECTRA self-protection suite and access to European weapons such as the Meteor air-to-air missile, along with the commonality of a type the Indian Air Force already operates.
India’s defence ministry said in 2025 that the deal includes transfer of technology for the integration of indigenous weapons, and a 22 October report by Zona Militar says France has now opened the door to Indian weapons on the Rafale M. The jets will operate from INS Vikrant first and later from INS Vikramaditya, until India’s own twin-engine deck-based fighter is ready.
For now, the job in Goa is less glamorous: measuring, fitting and flying until the French jet and the Indian ship agree with each other.
Sources: ANI via The Week (22 Oct 2026), India TV, Daijiworld, Indian Masterminds (citing Defence.in), Naval News, Dassault Aviation, Ministry of Defence (India), Zona Militar
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