Indo-UK joint exercise familiarises Air Force with modern AWACS
Dated 13/10/2006
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There were no winners or losers in the first joint exercise, between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Royal Air Force (RAF), United Kingdom in 43 years.
Expressing satisfaction over the results of the fortnight-long 'Indradhanush' exercise, held here, Air Marshal K.D.Singh, Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) of the Central Air Command (CAC) said: "We have learnt valuable lessons from each other and our officers have got exposure to AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control Systems), through this exercise."
The IAF is set to acquire the AWACS Phalcons from Israel next year. They will be inducted inside the IL-76 aircraft.
'Indradhanush' seemed to be an opportunity for IAF personnel to acquire operational experience through the British E-3 D Sentry AWACS.
"The IAF fighter controllers have learnt a lot about the operation of the AWACS and will benefit tremendously from this experience, just as we have learnt about inter-operability," said Air Vice Marshal Christopher Harper of the RAF.
Terming it a great experience for the Chief of the RAF, Air Chief Marshal Glenn Torpy, Harper also spoke about Torpy's Sukhoi-30 MKI sortie recently in Pune.
The focus of the exercise was to learn about each other's operational concepts, familiarisation of the ground crew with each other's maintenance practices and to identify areas of commonality in terms of administration of future detachments and joint exercises.
A total of eight aircraft of the RAF participated in the exercise including six Tornado F3 Air Defence aircraft. The IAF's 19 aircraft were part of the historic exercise. The next Indo-UK air exercise is likely to be held in mid-2007.
The exercise was split between Agra and Gwalior, with approximately 245 personnel of the RAF participating in it.
