The first Rafale multipurpose fighter jet will be delivered to Croatia at a French Air Force base tomorrow, Defence Minister Mario Banozic said on Sunday, adding that the first six aircraft will be in Croatia at the start of next year's second quarter.

“Tomorrow we’ll have a historic day… the legal takeover of the first Rafale which will eventually be here in Croatia, together with the other five, the first six aircraft, at the start of the second quarter of 2024,” he said in Marija Bistrica at a pilgrimage of the Croatian army, police and war veterans.

Croatia is purchasing twelve 4.5+ generation Rafales, made by France’s Dassault Aviation, for its Air Force.

“Everything is going as we planned, the project is proceeding as we conceived, the infrastructure is being developed. Parallel to that, we trained the pilots, the technicians, preparing, together with the French partners, the transfer of know-how and equipment,” Banozic said, adding that “tomorrow we’ll become the owners of the first Rafale.”

Croatia and France signed an agreement on the purchase of the Rafales late in 2021.

Asked when the other aircraft would arrive, Banozic said “in line with the contracts.”

Speaking of the pilots who will fly the Rafales, he said they were those who trained on them as well as those “who have been in the profession long, who know what the Air Force means.”

Banozic will attend tomorrow’s handover ceremony at the Mont-de-Marsan airbase along with a delegation of the Croatian government and army. After the ceremony, the Croatian pilots will fly to the training centre in Bordeaux, where Croatian Air Force technicians and pilots will continue their training, the Defence Ministry said.