India is striving to equip its armed forces with new and upgraded combat aircraft to counter the rise of Chinese military airpower and maintain superiority over its longtime rival Pakistan. It has longstanding plans to raise the Indian Air Force's (IAF) combat aircraft force to 39.5 squadrons. Its order of battle currently falls short of this total by approximately 20%, a situation unlikely to be rectified before 2017 at the earliest The Dassault Rafale was selected as the medium-multi-role combat aircraft in January 2012, with negotiations to finalise the deal throughout the following year. The process is expected to be completed in 2014, according to the French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, speaking to the media on October 9,2013. Six squadrons will be equipped with the fighter at three bases, with Ambala AFS in Western Air Command the first in 2017.
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机译：印度正努力为其武装部队配备新型和升级型战斗机，以抵抗中国军事空中力量的增长，并保持其长期竞争对手巴基斯坦的优势。它有长期的计划，将印度空军的战斗机部队增至39.5个中队。目前，它的战斗顺序比这个总数少了约20％，这种情况不太可能最早在2017年之前得到纠正。达索阵风于2012年1月被选作中型多用途战斗机，并通过谈判最终达成协议在接下来的一年中。法国国防部长让·伊夫·勒·德里安（Jean-Yves Le Drian）于2013年10月9日对媒体说，该程序预计将于2014年完成。六个中队将在三个基地装备战斗机，西部航空司令部的Ambala AFS将于2017年成为第一个。
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