The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : City to host fighter planes for IAF exercise

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 29, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

City to host fighter planes for IAF exercise

G. Anand

Is a component of combat exercises over the south Peninsula

Event to be held from December
3 to 5
IAF operations not to affect normal flight schedule

Thiruvananthapuram: Six Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) will arrive in the city on Thursday to participate in a massive air combat exercise over the southern Peninsula scheduled to be held in the first week of December.

The French-built light-weight fighter aircraft are expected to touch down at the IAF’s technical area inside the airport at 2.30 p.m. The fighters are based in Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh.

The IAF operations will not affect domestic and international flights from the city. The Kerala component of the exercise will start on December 3 and conclude on December 5. The fighters will be flying mostly beyond visual range and the combat exercises will be mainly over the sea.

However, residents could expect to hear the distant rumble of fighter jets and possibly see some combat aircraft streaking overhead. The complex air combat drills will be held mostly in the morning and early afternoon. There could also be some night flying.

The exercise has been code named ‘Dakshin Prahar’ and will cover the skies over Bangalore and the island territories of Lakshadweep and Minicoy. It will help the IAF gauge its reach over the seas and also test how well military and civilian assets (chiefly radars and airfields) have been integrated for better air defence surveillance.

Six British-French built Jaguar ground attack aircraft and an unknown number of Sukhoi 30 MKIs (IAF’s Russian-built long-range, heavy-class, multi-role air superiority strike fighter) will participate in the exercise.

The Jaguars will take off from the Arakkonam Naval Air base near Chennai. The Sukhois, supported by Russian-built IL-78 airborne fuel tankers for mid-air refuelling, will fly down for the exercise from their home base in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh.

The IAF will be deploying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for surveillance and reconnaissance and possibly also as air-borne targets for the fighters.

The UAVs will be operated remotely by controllers in IAF bases in Sulur and Tanjavur in Tamil Nadu.

‘Dakshin Prahar’ signifies the growing strategic importance of the Southern Air Command (SAC). The exercise is of great importance to the IAF, particularly in the wake of reports that certain non-State actors in the region have acquired minimal air-combat capability.

Certain components of the IAF, most likely the Jaguars, will be mimicking the role of invading aircraft.

The Mirage 2000s and the Sukhois will play the role of interceptors. The aircraft will engage each other in simulated dog fights. The exercise will also test the IAF’s reconnaissance and ground attack capabilities in maritime conditions.

The Indian Navy has committed some of its assets for the operation for testing its ‘inter-operability levels with the IAF. The second phase of the exercise will cover the northern part of the peninsula (from Hyderabad to south of Nagpur).

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