Indian IAF jets to fly to S Africa

NEW DELHI: After a multi-lateral exercise in the US, a large IAF contingent is now all set to fly to South Africa to participate in a joint combat exercise there.

Six multi-role Mirage-2000 fighters, an IL-78 air-to-air refueller and another IL-76 transport aircraft, along with 150 airmen, will be flagged off from Thiruvananthapuram on September 12 to take part in the exercise code-named 'Golden Eagle'.

The exercise, a force and capability projection endeavour by India, will see IAF fighters operating with the 'Cheetah' fighter jets of the South African Air Force.

The IAF is going in for more and more overseas deployment of its fighter aircraft to gauge operational tactics of other air forces. "It's always good to learn from the experiences of others," said an officer.

"Golden Eagle is primarily an air defence exercise, where both the air forces will participate in air-to-air and air-to-ground missions at the Hoed Spruit air base," he said.

"The Mirages will be proceeding to South Africa via Mauritius. Mid-air refuelling by the IL-78 would be carried out while over-flying the Indian Ocean," he added.

IAF has become only the sixth air force in the world to induct air tankers like the IL-78s to enhance the operational and endurance capabilities of its frontline fighters like the Sukhoi-30MKIs, Jaguars and Mirage-2000s.


Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com...

Does anyone have any good links on info about the South african AF and its aircrafts ?

I remember the Suth Africans once getting walloped by russian sukhoi's during a similar exercise . Unfortunately that link does not exist anymore

Good to see the IAF take interest in more exercises. Only good can com eout of those..

Originally posted by Stealth Spy
Does anyone have any good links on info about the South african AF and its aircrafts ?

I remember the Suth Africans once getting walloped by russian sukhoi's during a similar exercise . Unfortunately that link does not exist anymore

If you find that link please forward it to me. The first I've heard of it.

SA Airforce links: www.saairforce.co.za... & www.mil.za...

www.saairforce.co.za
www.mil.za

Why can't the IAF train with countries like Russia, or states of the former USSR instead of training with the lights of inferior armed forces in this case South Africa??? I mean come on Russia and India are as thick as thieves why cant the twp of us combine our vast military capabilities more often and conduct these joint exercises??? I mean I don't want to sound like I'm being prejudice or casting a cloud of contradiction over he South African airforce, they are probably the best in the continent of Africa, but honestly that isn't saying very much at all. I heard that Russia and India conducted large scale naval exercises last year in the Indian ocean, and by the end of next year they will be conducting further joint exercises, this time concerning their airforces.

The world military forces are preparing for something, it's get more obvious every day...

the IAF wans to take on the South African F-16's to see how it's airforce shapes up against the similarly equiped pakistan.

They were upset when the US decided to field F-15's in the recent excercise between them.

The AF got its first encounter with F-16s in an exercise with the RSAF(Singapore) a month of so back...though the results are kept secret for some reason

Originally posted by Nexus
The world military forces are preparing for something, it's get more obvious every day...

Could it be...their JOBS? Gasp!

They are planning for WWIII,every time a major power shift is taking place people are getting ready for war,look at Germany in WWII,Russia in the cold war and the US and China now.

Hi guys

I've been absent from here for a while, due first to vacation and now to the whole Tsunami tragedy (volunteering.) I'll be back after the new year in a couple weeks

As a parting gift, here's a great image of the recent SINDEX exercises between IAF and RSAF (Republic of Singapore Airforce) showing the types of aircraft that participated



From front to rear:

- IAF Su-30K
- 2x RSAF F-16C/D
- IAF MiG-21Bison
- IAF MiG-27ML & MiG-29
- IAF Su-30MKI

Hmmm...those planes.... 1 Singaporean F-16C block 50 and another F-16D block 52....1 Su-30 MKI and 1 Su-27 UB, one MiG-29,one MiG-23/27 and a MiG-21,bison i think...

Edit: Whoops,didn't see bottom...guess i was wrong about the Su-27 UB

[edit on 30/12/04 by W4rl0rD]

Hi

Are you sure that ones a Blk 50, and the other a 52? I'm not familar with F-16 block shapes. There was much speculation on which block participated in the ex.

Its a guess,but don't start on the judge thingy,its based on intelligent guesses. F-16s are a pain in the ass when guessing. The F-16's in Singapore are made up of single-seaters F-16-150CU,F-16CJ-50 and F-16C-52D and 2-seaters F-16-150CU and F16D-52-D. Based on the pictures it shows one single seater and one 2 seater; i'm guessing,but that would be as close at it goes.

umm..how DOES one differentiate between a Mig23 and a Mig27??! ]

Also the aircraft bring up the rear is a SU30?? It looks much smaller than the MKI up front..maybe its a Su30ka..:puzz:
Can't be a Su 27..I don't think India has them..

That indo-singapore air exercises thread on ATSN : www.abovetopsecret.com...

read this thread that i started when the indo-singapore exercises were taking place.

there are a few quotes of IAF men clearly giving out that the IAF had the better of the F-16's


BTW : That'ts a great pic Raj. that combination of IAF planes will surely squash any pak f-16

[edit on 2-1-2005 by Stealth Spy]

Originally posted by Daedalus3
umm..how DOES one differentiate between a Mig23 and a Mig27??!

]

mig 23 :


mig 27 :

Originally posted by Daedalus3
Also the aircraft bring up the rear is a SU30?? It looks much smaller than the MKI up front..maybe its a Su30ka..:puzz:
Can't be a Su 27..I don't think India has them..

that is an MKI for sure. notice the canard foreplanes.

it looks relatively smaller in that very pic because all aircrafts are not flying at the same height.

Originally posted by Stealth Spy

Originally posted by Daedalus3
Also the aircraft bring up the rear is a SU30?? It looks much smaller than the MKI up front..maybe its a Su30ka..:puzz:
Can't be a Su 27..I don't think India has them..

that is an MKI for sure. notice the canard foreplanes.

it looks relatively smaller in that very pic because all aircrafts are not flying at the same height.

MKIs and later Su-27s/30s have canards,earlier ones don't have them as part of standard equpment.