IAF-USAF joint excercise update

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India, U.S. plan joint air force exercise
IANS

Monday, August 26, 2002

India and the U.S. will hold their first joint air exercise over Indian airspace in almost four decades in October, defense sources said Monday. Aircraft from the Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Air Force Command will come to India for the exercise, codenamed “Cope India,” the sources said.

NEW DELHI: The scope of the training program as well as the number of aircraft that will take part is being finalized.

“The exact dates and location of the exercise are yet to be decided,” said a senior military official who did not want to be named.

This will be the first joint exercise by the two air forces over Indian airspace since a war game in eastern India after the border war with China in 1962.

In Washington, the chief of the U.S. Pacific Air Force Command, General William Begert, described the joint exercise as “a breakthrough”.

The two sides conducted their largest ever war game near the Taj Mahal city of Agra in May when nearly 200 personnel from the Special Operations Forces of the Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Command and three C-130 Hercules aircraft joined an equal number of Indian para-commandos for “Exercise Balance Iroquois”.

The armed forces of India and the U.S. have chalked out a flurry of training programmes and exercises to enhance their joint ability to counter terrorism and other contingencies.

Defense cooperation, marked by a spate of visits at the highest levels of the Indian and American armed forces in the past nine months, is being expanded to include joint exercises in various parts of the world.

These programs were given firm shape during Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy’s visit to the U.S. in June.

Four senior Indian Air Force (IAF) officers participated as observers in the annual U.S. Air Force exercise “Cope Thunder” in Alaska in July. IAF planes have been invited to join the same exercise when it is held next year.

Indian army and air force personnel will go to Alaska in September-October to join an exercise for airborne operations in a cold environment. During this maneuver, Indian and American forces will train for para dropping of troops.

The IAF is mulling a proposal to send an Il-76 heavy transport aircraft and personnel for an exercise in the Pacific island nation of Guam at the year-end.

Military ties between the two sides, characterized by decades of frostiness, registered an upswing after the September 11 terror attacks in the U.S.

“The main objective is inter-operability and exchange of experiences between our armed forces,” said the military official.

“Besides, such interaction helps us to create a better interface as our structures and operating procedures are different.”