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The first major Royal Air Force (RAF) and Indian Air Force (IAF) exercise for over forty years has just taken place in the North of the Country.
As part of the RAF Squadron Exchange programme, the bi-lateral exercise named Exercise INDRA DHANUSH, (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. Furthermore, the Exercise demonstrated the RAF's desire to engage over a spectrum of military capabilities with an important strategic partner.
The IAF 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 on the Exercise 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 IAF Sukhoi-30 MKIs, Mirage 2000, MiG-21
