US-India Cope Exercises

There was an article in last week’s issue of AW&ST, which I won’t post in full because their terms of use specifically mentionnot posting in electronic boards, about the past US Indian exercise. It tells more about the engagement, and leads me to believe that the US pilots were exercising with a more of a handicap that previously suspected. Evidently, some pilots in the US community are annoyed that their reputations are being damaged, especially when the ex is being used for political purposes, i.e. to drum up the call for F-22s and F-35s.

For instance;

– They were outnumbered 3:1.

– The US pilots used no active missiles, but the IAF did with their R-77s and Micas.

– Interestingly, none of the F-15s had AESA.

US pilots said that they underestimated their Indian counterparts, who showed creativity and flexibility, isntead of the usual expected Cold War style of flying.

The Mig-21s operated by the Indians were overheard to be using ” ‘gray-market’ Bison radar and avionics upgrades.” The IAF brought in their Su-30s (not MKIs), 5 Mig-29s, and an An-32 simulating a role as an AWACS plane.

2 other interesting points;

Aerospace industry officials said that some of the radars the U.S. pilots encountered, including that of the Mirage 2000s, exhibited different characteristics than those on standard versions of the aircraft.

and

Aerospace industry officials say there’s some indication that the MiG-21s also may have been getting a data feed from other airborne radars that gave them improved situational awareness of the airborne picture.

In conclusion;

By comparison, the U.S. pilots don’t think they offered the Indians any surprises. The initial tactic is to run a wall with all four F-15s up front. That plays well when the long-range missiles and AESA radar are in play.

“You know we’re there and we’re not hiding,” Snowden says. “But we didn’t have the beyond-visual-range shot or the numerical advantage. Eventually we were just worn down by the numbers. They were very smart about it. Their goal was to get to a target area, engage the target and then withdraw without prolonging the fight. If there were a couple of Eagles still alive away from the target area, they would keep them pinned in, get done with the target and then egress with all their forces.

“All their aircraft seemed to be capable of breaking out [targets] and shooting at the ranges the exercise allowed,” he says. “We generally don’t train to an active missile threat [like the Mirage’s Mica or the AA-12 for the Russian-built aircraft], and that was one of the things that caused us some problems.”

The US pilots give commendation to the IAF for being adaptive and running a broad spectrum of tactics.