President Droupadi Murmu will take a sortie in a Rafale fighter aircraft from the Ambala Air Force base in Haryana on Wednesday, Rashtrapati Bhavan announced on Tuesday. “The President of India, Droupadi Murmu, will visit Ambala, Haryana, where she will take a sortie in Rafale,” a statement said.
Former presidents A P J Abdul Kalam and Pratibha Patil had undertaken sorties in Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft at the Air Force Station, Lohegaon near Pune on June 8, 2006, and November 25, 2009, respectively. On April 8, 2023, Murmu, the supreme commander of the Indian armed forces, became the third President and second woman head of state to take a sortie in Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft at the Tezpur Air Force Station, Assam. Manufactured by French aerospace major Dassault Aviation, Rafale fighter aircraft were formally inducted into the Indian Air Force in September 2020 at the Air Force Station, Ambala.
