— PHOTO: AP

AIR POWER: A Tornado F3 (right) of Royal Air Force and an Indian Air Force MiG 27 ML during a joint exercise in Gwalior on Friday.

GWALIOR: The Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) of the United Kingdom are engaged here in the first-ever joint exercises in 43 years.

Pilots and senior officers of the IAF are getting acquainted with the potential of the British AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System), which can spot any air activity within 300 kms.

India will receive its first AWACS by the middle of next year.

Officers say that the Russian-Israeli system will be more potent than the RAF's E3D Sentry.

The IAF will receive two more later.

It may be noted that Israel, succumbing to the U.S. pressure, had cancelled a deal with China to supply AWACS.

Excitement

At the Gwalior air base, especially earmarked for exercises with foreign air forces along with Kalaikunda in West Bengal, there is marked excitement among the IAF's air warriors as the huge radar mounted RAF AWACS, takes to the air.

"Our men did get the experience of being aboard the AWACS while it was controlling the fighters," said senior Central Command official Air Marshal A. D. Singh.

"It is an important lesson to help us operationalise our AWACS in future," said Group Captain Hari Kumar, heading the IAF's Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment (TACDE).

Operating procedures

Apart from the novelty of trying out a technological force multiplier, the acquaintance with each other's operating procedures will come in handy since "we live in a very unsafe world," noted Air Vice Marshal Christopher Harper from the RAF's strike command.

The exercises taking place after four decades "were not an easy walk in the park," as after the close collaboration till the 60s, both sides veered away to develop their own tactics and terns of engagement, he said.

The goal, he said, was to "build bigger packages from smaller packages."

The RAF pressed into service six Tornado fighters.

When both sides meet again in the U.K. next year, the British participation promises to be bigger.

Change in technology

Air Marshal Singh saw the purpose of the exercises a little differently.

"The change in technology is very rapid. We don't want to be boxed in with our concepts but want to pit them against other air forces and learn from them," he observed.

Asked whether he saw a situation when the IAF and RAF might participate in joint operations, Air Vice Marshal Harper felt that in a "unstable world" it was hard to say when and where that might happen.

An all-women crew of the IAF flew newspersons from Delhi to Gwalior.

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