Vasco De Gama (Goa) [India], January 5 : Amid a debate on reports about the Chinese sixth-generation fighters, a French Navy officer on Saturday said these planes are a bit of a dream right now as it will take a long time for them to be developed into full-blown fighter aircraft.
Asked about sixth-generation aircraft and Rafale and their comparison with them, French Navy's Carrier Air Wing Commander Guillaume Denis told ANI, "6th (generation aircraft) is a bit of a dream right now but when it comes to 5th generation...Rafale is a subjective topic. Rafale is not stealthy...but it has been built from scratch...to be able to do all the missions at the same time, which is one of the features of the 5th-generation aircraft, we are able to upgrade it every two years...Rafale's Meteor air-to-air missile is probably one of the best missiles you can find in the world...right now it (6th generation aircraft) is only on paper..."
The officer is in India as part of the French Navy's Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier strike group and is in charge of the warship's fighter aircraft operations.
After visuals of a sixth-generation Chinese plane emerged in social media, there has been a very heated debate on Indian aircraft programmes which have been delayed due to one reason or the other.
The Rafale Marine is the choice of the Indian Navy which is expected to soon sign a contract for buying 16 of these planes for its indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.
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