Indian Air Force (IAF) held a multi-country joint exercise Sunday at Sulul Air Base in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, New Delhi TV reported. Including Germany, France, the United Kingdom and other aircraft will be sent to participate in the exercise. The Vice Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Singh, called the exercise the largest ever joint Indian Air Force exercise.
According to Singh, the exercise will run from August 6 to August 14, australia, Bangladesh, France, Germany, Greece, Singapore, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States will send fighter jets, transport aircraft, air refueling aircraft and other air force models to participate in the exercise, an additional 18 countries will participate in the exercise as observers. India will display its home-made fighter jets in the exercise, and invited countries to participate in the representatives to visit India’s technology companies.
Indian Air Force General Joad Hari said the air force had experience of conducting bilateral joint exercises with multinational air forces, but the scale and complexity of the exercise with the 10-nation air force was unprecedented. Chaudhary said that the exercise will simulate air electronic warfare, radar penetration, air defense operations and other air combat forms, focusing on large-scale air operations, large air formations from different countries will work together. This is the first time the Indian Air Force has conducted such exercises in its 60-year history.
The country is looking to buy medium-sized military transport aircraft aircraft on the international market to replace the ageing Lockheed Martin C130 Hercules, Radio France Internationale reported. Manufactured by Airbus, the A400M military transport aircraft was delivered in 2013 and is widely used in the European National Air Force, meeting the requirements and standards of the Indian Air Force. Some countries in Europe and the United States also want to take advantage of the exercise, to show their fighter performance.
Just days before the exercises began, Singh told the media that delivery of the new Mk1A model of the indian-made “Shining” fighter jet would be delayed for a number of reasons. According to the The Hindu, the main reason for the delay was GM’s announcement that it had to delay deliveries of the F404 engines used in the brilliant jet because of supply chain pressure. The state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is in talks with GM to build its next-generation F414 engine in the country.