India to hold air exercises with US, France this year

The Indian Air Force will be conducting "major exercises" with France and the United States this year as part of its increasing interaction with the air services of other countries, Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi said today.

Addressing a press conference at the Southern Air Command headquarters here, the Air Chief said the Indian Air Force personnel would be travelling to France in June. The exercise with the US would be conducted in India in October-November this year.

The US, which had recently offered to sell its F-18 multi-role fighter aircraft to India, would be bringing its AWACS and F-15 and F-16 aircraft for the exercises, A C M Tyagi said.

Describing such "outward looking" exercises as gainful learning experiences for the Indian Air Force, the Air Chief said similar exercises had been conducted with Singapore, South Africa, France and the US recently.

Asked about the threat posed by the acquisition of the US F-16s by Pakistan, he said any weapons acquisition posed a threat.

"But, we still have to see what the Pakistanis are being offered. There are different models of F-16s. It is not the shell, but the weaponry, the radars and the electronic warfare capability on board that matter," he added.

full article...


pertty cool..isint'it. air exercises with lots of airforces.after south africa, singapore,now france and the us again.

i bet the USAF will be itching to make up for the loss in the previous 2 air exercises in gwalior and alaska.

found some more news...

In November, the US Air Force will fly a dozen F-16 fighters from the latest Block 50 — the same being sold to Islamabad — for a progressive joint air exercise with IAF fighters over a refurbished Kalaikunda (West Bengal) air base.

In the Indo-US air exercises held in February last year in Gwalior, USAF had brought F-15 Eagles, though IAF was keen on F-16s. This time, with F-16s formally on offer to India, Pentagon has decided it’s no longer strategically necessary to keep IAF pilots away from USAF F-16s.



The USAF will also bring a pair of Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers for mid-flight refuelling, though IAF is understood to have communicated its interest in manoeuvering with American AWACS aircraft, most likely the Boeing-Northrop E-3 AWACS. The rationale: IAF wants to clock as many flying hours as it can possibly get with AWACS before the three Phalcon AWACS planes begin arriving from Israel in 2007. The Force will field Su-30MKIs, Mirage-2000Hs, MiG-21 Bisons and MiG-27M ground strike jets for the November Cope India exercises.

Sources said Pentagon’s confirmation that F-16s will be participating and the IAF’s keenness on flying with American AWACS were communicated between March 7-10 in Hawaii at a meeting of the Executive Steering Group under the Indo-US Defence Policy Group (DPG), attended by the IAF’s vice-chief Air Marshal S.K. Malik.

The Force is also gunning to participate in the 2006 Red Flag combined air exercises overseen by the USAF’s Nevada-based Air Warfare Center. The Pentagon has taken India’s interest under consideration. The Red Flag exercises, held by the US and allied countries at the Nellis AFB in Nevada, are said to make for the closest simulation of a war scenario of any combined air exercise in the world. It involves comprehensive joint manoeuvres with fighters, bombers, UAVs, electronic countermeasure suppression planes, air superiority jets, AWACS and mid-air refuellers.

The joint manoeuvres planned for the November exercises will be more comprehensive and intricate than those engaged in during the first Cope India at Gwalior.

full article

Don't forget that India and Israel will be running exercises, as well.
I think F-16s versus MiG-29MKIs.

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 13: The defence relationship between New Delhi and Tel Aviv has deepened further with India and Israel agreeing in principle to hold joint air exercises involving US-made F-16s and Russian-built Su-30 MKI fighters.

India, Israel to hold joint air exercise in ’05

My understanding is that Israel will either use the F-16D Barak or the F-16I Sufa in this upcoming exercise.






seekerof

[edit on 9-4-2005 by Seekerof]

the F-15I is also a potent airplane.

but i dunno if it will take part.


the F-16 , MKI comparision is absurd.

try comparing the MKI to better F-15's.

india's Mig-29 Barak's, upgraded mirages will keep the F-16 at bay

The nomenclature in the above two posts is all jumbled..
On guy calls it the F-16 barak
while the other calls it a MiG29 Barak,
One guy calls it an F-16I while the other refers to a F-15I..
And the there's soemthing called the MiG29 MKI??!!

I hope France throw there Rafale`s into the mix

I'm interested to know the numbers of jets each country will field.

And I hope the pentagon denies India's request to exercise at red flag, as they are not a major ally of the U.S.

as posted by Daedalus3
And the there's soemthing called the MiG29 MKI??!!

First, in my original post mentioning the MiG-29MKI, it was a typo. It should have been Su-30MKI. My bust.

Second, there is a MiG-29MKI....it is the 'K' variant but built solely for India, such as the Sukhoi-30MKI. Again, MKI's are variants built strictly for India.




seekerof

[edit on 9-4-2005 by Seekerof]

Originally posted by WestPoint23
I'm interested to know the numbers of jets each country will field.

And I hope the pentagon denies India's request to exercise at red flag, as they are not a major ally of the U.S.

haha but they should..

but since we've alredy let them into gwalior, i wont be surprised if they reciprocate the same courtesy.

my apologies...india's baseline Mig-29's are called Mig-29 Baaz (not Barak).

Mig-29 Baaz


but the new ones on offer(with TVC, phased array radar, etc) will be called Mig-29 M2I or Mig-29 M3 (if purchased).

the Mig-29K that has been ordered for are ship borne fulcrum's for the new aircraft carrier INS Vikramadithya.


F-15I's are Israel's "top of the line" fighters, like the Su-30 MKI is india's.




now a pic of the F-16 I.



now a pic of the Su-30 MKI




now a pic of the Su-30 K (without canard foreplanes and TVC, older radar)


i hope that settles it.



[edit on 10-4-2005 by Stealth Spy]

i bet the USAF will be itching to make up for the loss in the previous 2 air exercises in gwalior and alaska.

keep telling yourself that

india's Mig-29 Barak's, upgraded mirages will keep the F-16 at bay

How many times have we been through this? It has been proven time and again that the MiG-29 is vastly inferior to the F-16, same goes to the Mirage 2000, although not as much.

Originally posted by Hockeyguy567

india's Mig-29 Barak's, upgraded mirages will keep the F-16 at bay

How many times have we been through this? It has been proven time and again that the MiG-29 is vastly inferior to the F-16, same goes to the Mirage 2000, although not as much.

huh..how many times have i asked u to check out these before making such baseless and brainless statements.


Comparision charts


--

Lt. Col. David "Logger" Rose, a Persian Gulf War F-15 pilot, 41, recalled the time "12 years ago to the day in Desert Storm" when an Iraqi MiG-29 chased away his F-15 on the first day of the war.

Source : www.reviewjournal.com...

----

dont bore me anymore with your seseless "everything non-american sux" posts.besides this is not another mig-29 vs F-16 thread. wait for the results of the exercises to come out..

check out the features of the new Mig-29 on this thread : www.abovetopsecret.com...

to call yourself russian, when u are obviously not one is way to silly in my openion. how easy it would be for me and the rest of us to call ourselves american and spill untrue filth about the USAF....

anyway getting on with the topic :

For the first time, India would be sending its baseline SU-30K fighters for joint exercises with the French Air Force in France in june this year.

The Sukhoi 30's which had created ripples last year by getting the better of US Air Forces F-15e tomcats in joint manouvres over Gwalior, would this time cross swords with the French Frontline Rafale and upgraded Mirage 2000-5 in the exercises codenamed Garuda II.

"A team of Six Sukhoi fighters backed by two IL-78 mid air refuellers would take part in the joint Indo-French fighter exercises", Air Vice Marshal S C Mukul said here.

With the Indian Air Forces interaction with foreign air forces becoming almost a yearly ritual, the Force is now developing the Kalaikunda Air base in West Bengal as an arena for Joint training with Foreign air forces.

"We are developing international facilties at the base so that it can host such joint manovres" Mukul said addng the airfield would be ready for such events by the end of the year, when it would be the site of second Indo-US fightr exercises.

The Americans, who last year did not acede to the IA request for joint exercises involving its frontline F-16 Fighting falcons, has this time agreed to bring these fighters to the Indian soil. The US Air Force action could have been swayed by the fact that Lockheed Martin, the manufacturers of the higly rated fighters, are making a serious bid for the IAF's contract to induct 126 multi-role aircraft.

Indian frontline fighter pilots recently measured wits against the Fighting falcons during joint exercises with the Singapore Air Force, which has F-16s as its mainstay.

However IAF officials were tighlipped wether India would agree to US requests for sending its upgraded SU-30MKI for multination exercises 'Red Flag' to be held in Texas towards the latter part of the year.

They said negotiation were still going on with the Americans on India's participation. IAF participated in the first series of such exercises in Alaska last year, when Deep penetration Jaguar aircraft took part in the event.

When is the Raptor going to be brought into the exercises? I am really curious to see how it would hold it's own. (as is the rest of the aviation world) Or is the US trying to keep it's strength and weaknesses secret?

Originally posted by Facefirst
When is the Raptor going to be brought into the exercises? I am really curious to see how it would hold it's own. (as is the rest of the aviation world) Or is the US trying to keep it's strength and weaknesses secret?

i dont think so..

the F-22 taking on the MKI would be nice. i guess the raptor is not yet combat ready as yet. IMO its pilots need more hours on the bird. besides the flight software on the F-22 needs to be fixed properly.

more news....

According to top IAF officials, 8 to 12 American F-16's would be taking part in the exercise 'Cope Thunder Three' and India, besides the Su-30K , would field the Mig-27s, Mirage 2000 and Mig Bisons.

Indian Air Forces frontline Sukhoi, Mirage 2000 and upgraded Mig Bisons would cross swords with the United States Air Force F-16 fighting falcons in the second series of joint fighter exercises in November this year.

The US officials have been very keen to have a closer look at India's just acquired SU-30MKI. In the past, New Delhi has spurned invitations for the frontline fighters to visit America for taking part in multi-nation air exercises.

full article....

Ohh... that is so fair F-16’s against Su-30's. With match ups like this no wonder we loose every engagement. Also The Raptor can perform in exercises as it did last year with the U.S. 15's but I don't think the pentagon wants to show of its new bird just yet.

Originally posted by WestPoint23
Ohh... that is so fair F-16’s against Su-30's. With match ups like this no wonder we loose every engagement. Also The Raptor can perform in exercises as it did last year with the U.S. 15's but I don't think the pentagon wants to show of its new bird just yet.

the mig-21's and mirages are coming too.

besides those are baseline Su-30K's.

the Su-30 MKI, with virtual 3-Dimensional Thrust vectoring, 5th generation radar is not coming.>>MKI details

Still seems a little unfair to me especially when your talking about the F-16 which is a multi role fighter and the Su-30 is supposed to be a air superiority fighter. They at lest should put some F-15 in the match up.