AFP, BHOPAL, India: India and the United States pitted their war jets against each other over central India Monday as the two countries staged their first-ever aerial combat games, Indian officials said.
The gruelling exercises, due to last 10 days, were another sign of the intensifying military relationship between the countries which were on opposite sides during the Cold War.
The exercises began in the skies over the central Indian city of Gwalior after the United States Air Force (USAF) and the Indian Air Force scrambled their fighter jets, Indian defence ministry spokesman Amitava Chakravarty said.
“The major joint exercise is aimed at building a higher degree of coordination between the two air forces,” he told AFP.
The exercises are intended to facilitate future joint peacekeeping operations, not for any Indian combat role alongside US forces, press reports have quoted IAF officials as saying.
The USAF flew F-15 Eagle fighters while their Indian hosts sought to match the speed and manoeuverability of the twin-engined US planes with their Russian-designed MiG-29s, Indian Air Force (IAF) officials said
The MiG-29 and the F-15s have a maximum speed of around 2,661 kilometres (1,650 miles) an hour and roughly match each other's climbing rate of around 15,151 metres (50,000 feet) a minute, experts say.
Besides MiG-29s, the IAF was also using its ageing MiG-21s, ground-attack MiG-27s and multi-role MiG-23 planes as well as its French-built Mirage-2000 and Russian-designed Sukhoi-30 frontline war jets, Chakravarty said.
The USAF brought in 100 of its personnel for the exercises besides two C-5 Galaxy transporters for strategic deployment.
India traditionally tilted toward Cold War ally, Moscow, which still supplies 70 percent of its military hardware, but lately it has been strengthening its military relations with the United States.
They resumed joint military training in 2002 after Washington lifted sanctions imposed on India after New Delhi held nuclear tests in 1998.
Last October, the US and Indian navies held five days of joint manoeuvres in the Arabian Sea, a month after staging week-long joint exercises in the Ladakh region of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, aimed at improving coordination between their special forces.
