Indian Exercise a Useful Learning Experience for the Royal Air Force

, The first major Royal Air Force and Indian Air Force exercise for over forty years has been taking place at bases in northern India, with Tornado F3s, E3-D AWACS and a VC10 making up the bulk of the RAF air presence. 
 
As part of the RAF Squadron Exchange programme, the bi-lateral exercise, named Exercise INDRA DHANUSH (which means rainbow in Hindi), was held at IAF Gwalior and IAF Agra. The exercise aimed to further develop UK/Indian relationships and exchange interoperability of RAF and IAF assets. The exercise demonstrated the RAF's desire to engage over a spectrum of military capabilities with an important strategic partner. 
 
The Indian Air Force has historically chosen many UK aircraft for its fleet so there is a shared understanding based on the use of similar airframes. The recent decision by India to acquire the Hawk fast jet trainer for the IAF has significantly enhanced the level of engagement between the two Services and IAF pilots will continue to receive training at RAF Valley as part of the Hawk deal. 
 
UK assets deployed to India included six Tornado F3 aircraft from 43(F) Squadron based at RAF Leuchars in Scotland, an E3-D AWACS crewed by 8 and 23 Squadrons based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire and one VC10 air to air refuelling aircraft from 101 Squadron RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. The IAF platforms included the Sukhoi-30 MKIs, Mirage 2000, MiG-21 'Bison' and MiG-27 aircraft. A total of 245 RAF aircrew, ground crew and support personnel took part in the exercise. 
 
The Tornado F3s deployed to IAF Gwalior, 300km south-east of New Delhi, a fast jet base which is home to the Mirage 2000, MiG-21 and MiG-27 aircraft. Air Officer Commanding Gwalior, Air Commodore KG Bewoor, said: 
 
“I was a little apprehensive when I was told that the crew would be coming from a cold place, not hot like in Gwalior, and how would they be able to adjust. I have found that efforts we had taken to make operations comfortable were well appreciated and well adjusted to by the RAF. 
 
“One of the very important lessons that we learned is the manner in which you move your logistics support and the manner in which you have move your forces across for the exercise.” 
 
Air Commodore Bewoor added: 
 
“The manner in which flying has been conducted and of course the utilisation of the AWACS is very important for us because we are going to get the AWACS next year.” 
 
The E3-D AWACS and VC10 aircraft deployed to IAF Agra, which was originally an RAF base, founded in 1932 and transferred to full IAF control in 1947 on the granting of Independence. The IAF took over all the Dakota aircraft then based at Agra, in Uttar Pradesh, and it has remained in the transport role ever since, flying a succession of the IAF's strategic transport aircraft including C119 'Boxcar' and AN-24. 
 
Today, it is the strategic transport maintenance hub, the home base of some of the IAF's fleet of IL-76 transports and their fleet of IL-78 air-to-air refuelling aircraft flown by 78 Sqn IAF, AN-24 transport and also the Canberra's of 12 Sqn IAF. Significantly, the IAF is amongst the last operators of the venerable Canberra, using it as an aerial survey platform until it retires from service in 2007. 
 
Over the years, Agra has seen action in all of the IAF campaigns including Kashmir in 1948, Operation Cactus in Sri Lanka in 1987 and most recently has contributed aircraft to the relief operation in South East Asia following the tsunami of December 2004. Air Commodore S J Badahur, Air Officer Commanding Agra said: 
 
“I hope that the IAF can learn from the professionalism of the RAF, which has impressed me a lot. I hope that the RAF will remember the joint friendship and hospitality shared on this exercise. I look forward to more work together in the future.” 
 
Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy KCB CBE DSO ADC BSc(Eng) FRAeS RAF, visited India during the Exercise: 
 
“The RAF and IAF can learn from each other, build relations and exchange ideas,” he said. “The IAF can learn from our experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our pilots, in turn, are exercising against a good range of Soviet fighters which they have not done earlier.” 
 
Air Commodore Julian Stinton, Station Commander RAF Leuchars and Senior British Officer believes the environment was an important factor during the exercise: 
 
“It is a different environment and things happen at a different rate. The whole exercise has played out in much the same way as I expected it to. It has been great to work with an Air Force that was once part of us and there is a lot of commonality indeed. They have an operational background experience that differs from our own and we're getting a lot of insight into the way they think, the whole thing is about swapping experiences.” 
 
The RAF has a long tradition of working alongside the Indian Air Force. The first Indian nationals were commissioned into the Royal Flying Corps during World War I and served on the Western and Italian Fronts. 
 
The independent IAF was created in 1932 with officer training being conducted at the RAF College, Cranwell. During the course of World War II, the IAF flew more than 16,000 sorties and over 24,000 operational flying hours. As a result of this service, the IAF was granted permission to use the prefix 'Royal' and so became the Royal Indian Air Force; it ceased to use this prefix in 1949. 
 
The IAF celebrated its 74th Anniversary on 9 October 2006, Air Force Day, with an impressive air display at Hindon Air Base near New Delhi, in keeping with IAF's motto of “touching the sky with glory”. 
 
The IAF has been participating in various bi-lateral air exercises abroad and in India and has been host to US, French and Singapore Air Forces. With every exercise, the IAF has gained valuable experience and has come to be respected as a highly professional and motivated Air Force.