IAF gears up for Red Flag wargames

6 Aug 2008, 0509 hrs IST,TNN


NEW DELHI: Having flown over 120 sorties in the "work-up" phase at the Mountain Home Air Base at Idaho in the US, India's eight frontline Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, two IL-78 midair refuellers and an IL-76 heavy-lift aircraft are now all set to take on the world-famous Red Flag exercise.

Not only will IAF fighter pilots have to match their skills with American top guns in their F-16s and F-15s, but also grapple with French ones in their spanking new Rafale fighters and South Korean ones in their F-15K jets, during the Red Flag at Nellis US air force base from August 9.

The Red Flag is considered to be the closest one can get to real air combat situations. As reported by TOI earlier, India will be shelling out around Rs 100 crore to take part in the complex air combat manoeuvres, touted as a new high in Indo-US military ties, with 11 aircraft, 91 officers and 156 other ranks.

"The challenge is to adapt quickly to the advanced network-centricity of USAF. The work-up phase is meant to familiarize our pilots with the flying procedures, radio telephony terminologies, brevity codes and other aspects of exercise," said an officer.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/I...how/3331155.cms

IAF team takes off today for multination wargames



| 6 aug 2008 |



BY : TNN

In the early hours of Monday, eight frontline Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, two IL-78 mid-air refullers and an IL-76 heavy-lift aircraft will quietly take off from Pune to head for what will be one of toughest challenges for IAF till now.

Hopping across Qatar, Turkey, France and Portugal, the IAF aircraft — along with 91 officers and 156 other ranks — will finally touch down in the US on July 17 in the run-up to the world famous "Red Flag" air combat wargames.

Not only will IAF fighter pilots have to match their combat skills with American top-guns in their F-16s and F-15s, but also grapple with French ones in their spanking new Rafale fighters and South Korean ones in their F-15K jets during the multi-nation exercise at Nellis US Air Force base at Nevada from August 2 to 23.

The Red Flag exercise, after all, is considered to be the closest one can get to real air combat situations. And it does not come cheap. As reported by TOI earlier, India will be shelling out around Rs 100 crore to take part in the complex air combat manoeuvres, which are being touted as a new high in Indo-US military ties.

Indian and American armed forces, incidentally, have held around 50 wargames in the last seven years to build "interoperability" and learn "best practices" from each other.

Such exercises also give the two confidence that they can operate together against "a common enemy" in the future if required.

Left parties like CPM and CPI, of course, have been extremely strident in their opposition to this growing strategic embrace between India and the US. But unlike the civil nuclear deal, that has not deterred the UPA government from going ahead with the flurry of Indo-US wargames since it came to office in 2004.

Before the actual Red Flag begins in August, the IAF contingent will get a chance to "clearly understand the new flying environment" at the Mountain Home Air Base at Idaho, where they will practice with F-16s and F-15s in the "work-up phase".

"We are sure our pilots will be able to hold their own in Red Flag. We may not be as used to advanced BVR (beyond-visual range) combat or operating in an AWACS (airborne warning control and warning systems) environment as USAF but are making steady progress in these aspects as well," said a senior IAF officer.

IAF fighter pilots have certainly proved more than a match for American, French, British and other pilots in combat exercises over the last few years. During the Indo-US "Cope India" exercise at Gwalior in February 2004, the first such air wargames between the two countries since 1963, for instance, IAF pilots flying Sukhois and other jets had simply outgunned USAF pilots in their F-15C fighters.

Soon after, IAF pilots had flown Jaguar strike fighters all the way to Alaska to participate in the multinational Cope-Thunder exercise there. Then, in November 2005, despite objections from the Left, the next Cope India exercise at Kalaikunda in West Bengal saw IAF fighters successfully take on the American F-16s.
http://www.idrw.org/india/

This is the first time India has been invited to join the Red Flag training exercises held periodically at the Nellis base since 1975. The high-endurance aerial war games give pilots from the US, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and other allied countries a chance to refine their skills in advanced war scenarios created by all the sophistication of the US Air Force and its war machines and satellites.

The Americans and other NATO countries will use the exercises to get a closer look at India’s $47 million SU-30MKI long-range fighter jet as it makes its first appearance in a multi-nation exercise. They will be using live ammunition for bombing exercises within the Nellis complex. There are likely to be two or three sorties every day including night runs!
chau

Yeah right! they wanted F-22s and you placed them in a handicapped situation(not to fire BVR) otherwise they would have clearly smoked you.

remember the sukhoi air to air missile have a far greater range than f-15c. In the previous exercises IAF TOLD AMERICANS NOT TO USE AWACS as Indians don,t have experience of it!
now concentrate to the present!

IIRC IAF was allowed to use BVR while USAF was not.Forget the range, some F-15s can always slip through as our F-6s and mirages did against the F-15s in the 70s(go read about it somewhere).Its not that you will always have the opportunity to fire first and if they had used awacs then through datalink they would have had the chance to fire first.

And they wanted their F-22s

Now let us concentrate to present.They will use awacs and BVRs and almost every thing while your phalcons arrive in a year or so.

I don't think that MKI's have Link 16 datalink.

Happy spanking(you on the recieving end)!

After Cope-India 2004 USAF did major changes to their Air Combat Training regime. Why was such a change required if the loss was staged by USAF just to get the F22 cleared from Congress?

Something did happened in the sky above Gwalior which made the USAF rethink its training strategy.

AWACS only provide situational awareness and command/control, but does not allow early weapon release. Weapon release solely depends on the radar that is on board.

Also the aircraft type was Su 30K, not MKI. it was modified/uprated Su 27. And they (both F 15/Su 30) carried equipment that can be utilized for BVR as well as WVR engagement. Check the exercise pictures and you will know what i mean.

And MKI does have tactical information data link system (TIDLS). Even the Su 30K version had datalink at that time. TKS-2/R-098(Tipovyi Kompleks Svyazi) Intra Flight Data Link (IFDL) was used in that exercise.

And even if Iaf don,t have awacs ( phalcon) right now, su-30mki can still act as a mini-awacs.
i think that's a incredible capability this fighter have. although there is disadvantage is size as well!
chau

They had the equipment for BVR but were they allowed to use it?

Is MKI's datalink system compatible with Link 16 used by US and NATO forces.I don't think so.If yes then please provide a link.

Again size will be a big disadvantage.

Happy spanking(you on the recieving end)!

you are kinky, lol.

ofcourse both datalink are not compatible. what are u trying to say? even the metric system of MKI differs from western system.

and why u keep carping on size issue? is F-15 small plane?

i can,t wait for the results specially su-30mki against rafale F3!
chau

Well when they are not compatible then why do you even mention that MKI has datalink.

If it will not work in that exercise then you are obviously at a disadvantage.So instead of mentioning MKI's qualities you should plainly say that our equipment is not compatible with theirs and we don't have an awacs of our own so we are not in a good position.

I don't care that MKI has this and this, if it will not work in an exercise of that magnitude.

I hope that USAF uses BVR this time.

We are only discussing this because all of a sudden there are three threads boasting some news on the chinese section(one with indian links boasting about how we defeated USAF).This aint BR.

Good luck with your "Mini Awacs".

do you even realize what are you writing?

please do contemplate on what you have just said. don't say something just for the sake of it.

What is this thread doing here?

I realize what i am saying.If you have points against it then please post.

What i wanted to say is that IAF is handicapped so stop wasting our time by posting news about IAF.