The Indian Air Force (IAF) is gearing up to join future anti-piracy operations in Gulf of Aden and is holding the first-ever exercise with Omanese Air Force this month to get experience in operating fighter aircraft there. “The IAF may be called upon to conduct aerial surveillance of the swathe of the Gulf of Aden region, where pirates are widening their area of operations fast,” IAF vice chief Air Marshal P K Barbora told reporters in New Delhi.
Joining the anti-piracy operations would not mean the IAF would unleash an offensive against the sea brigands, but would carry out surveillance of the vast area that the Navy would be unable to cover due to “speed and manpower” constraints, Barbora said. “With our (IAF) surveillance capability, we can help the comity of nations fighting the piracy menace there. Navy may not be able to cover the area in terms of speed and number of men. It is not necessary that we use our fire power,” he said.
Assuring that the fighter aircraft could perform surveillance role too, the IAF vice chief said with the midair refuelling capability, the fighters’ endurance levels to fly for longer hours and patrolling the area increased substantially. The ‘Eastern Bridge’ air exercise with Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) from October 22 to 29 would focus on achieving jointness and enhancing understanding of operational, maintenance and administrative procedures between the two air forces, he said.
Both India and Oman are the only countries that continue to operate Jaguar air-ground strike fighter fleets and they would bring these jets to the exercise to be held at Thumrait RAFO air base. Six single-seat twin-engine Darin-I Jaguars of the IAF from 16 Cobras and 27 Flaming Arrows squadrons, based in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, would participate alongside the RAFO Jaguars and F-16s.
The IAF would also take two IL-78 mid-air re-fueller for tanking the Jaguars to and fro from Oman and an IL-76 heavy lift aircraft for carrying the 45 officers and 91 airmen there. “The bilateral air exercise would be cost-effective in terms of benefit realisation of operational and tactical preparedness over an unknown mixed terrain of land and desert,” Barbora said.
Asked if Oman could support IAF’s anti-piracy operations by providing “operational turning around” facility by opening up its airbase for maintenance and fuel, the IAF vice chief replied in the affirmative, saying since the two air forces operated Jaguars, it was possible. However, to another question, he said there was no proposal to have a permanent base there, though RAFO personnel wad being trained at the IAF facilities here in India.
Stating that traditionally Oman had been closer to India than Pakistan, Barbora said the RAFO had on several occasions since early 1980s provided IAF turn-around facilities to transiting military aircraft. “Oman features among IAF’s priority-one country listed for defence cooperation. IAF-RAFO cooperation was initiated in 2006 and has increased substantially in the current year,” he added.
To a query, Barbora said certain austerity measures were taken and the government had restricted bilateral exercises of IAF to one a year, be it in India or abroad. “This is the general rule. But not that this rule cannot be bent, such as having a trilateral exercise instead of a bilateral one. But still there would be only one exercise a year,” he said.
Concerning a joint exercise with Chinese air force, Barbora said IAF would certainly like to interact with Peoples Liberation Army-Air Force (PLA-AF), though there were constraints of language. Asked if there was a request from Iran to hold joint exercise, the IAF vice chief said he was not aware of any such proposal. On the issue of government permission to shoot at Naxalites in self-defence, Barbora said the orders were yet to come.
Sign In
