IAF pilots score over Yanks
Chandan Nandy
Gwalior, February 25
United States Air Force (USAF) pilot Captain David Skalicky and his colleagues from the Alaska-based Pacific Command met their match among their Indian counterparts during the six-day Cope 2004 Indo-US Air Force exercise.
The exercise, which began on February 19, was the first between the two air forces involving fighter combat.
The score in the “match-up” is yet to be quantified, but the Indian pilots were upbeat. Several had a common refrain: “We gave them a few surprises in air combat. They have begun to respect us, though we also learnt a great deal from them,” said one, pride writ large over his face.
Six USAF F-15Cs were pitted against a range of Jaguars, MiG-21s, MiG-27s and the “fearsome” Sukhoi-30s.
The exercise was meant to evaluate tactics, training and operational procedures. No senior officer from either country was willing to go on record on who scored most points. But some Indian pilots claimed the “kill ratio” was 4:1 in their favour.
Air Marshal Ajit Bhavnani, who is senior Air Staff Officer at the Central Air Command, was more tempered. He said the exercise concluded with “mutual respect for each others’ skills” and that it should not be viewed as a “boxing match”.
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