NEW DELHI – Aiming to prepare itself for a short and swift two-front waragainst China and Pakistan, the Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out around10,000 sorties of its entire combat aircraft fleet in three days across thecountry to demonstrate its capability to undertake high intensityoperations with the limited number of aircraft available.
The 72-hour intense war games were part of the first phase of the ExerciseGaganshakti, which is the biggest-ever war game carried out by the airforce to prove its mettle, despite facing shortage of around 10 squadronsfighter aircraft due to lack of inductions and phasing out of the oldMiG-series planes.
“Almost every combat aircraft of the force carried out six sorties on threeconsecutive days to demonstrate that we are capable of undertaking hightempo operations with the fleet available to us, and the shortage of combatplanes does not have any impact on our capability to handle both warfronts,” government sources told Mail Today.
“At some places, the weather conditions hindered the operations of combataircraft, but we will compensate for it in the next phase. We have shownour capability to do more with the available resources to do away with theshortages,” they added. The IAF has a sanctioned strength of 42 squadrons,meaning around 840 combat aircraft of different planes, but the service iscurrently at only 31 squadrons (620 planes) due to delays in induction ofany new aircraft and delays in the LCA Tejas combat aircraft programme.Despite the induction of two squadrons of the Rafale combat planes plannedfrom 2019, the situation will not improve in the near future, as around 10squadrons of the MiG-27 and MiG-21 planes are scheduled to be phased out bythe year 2025.
In this scenario, the air force is carrying out more sorties from itsexisting fleet by improving the maintenance and serviceability of theplanes, which helped it to get more out of its planes during the pan-Indiawargames, which started from April 8 and are expected to continue tillApril 22.
During the wargames, the air force carried out a drill where the IAF chiefBirender Singh Dhanoa was taken to a forward base to monitor the high tempooperations under the protection of Sukhoi-30 combat aircraft.
Gaganshakti will see participation of over 1100 combat and transportaircraft, along with helicopters that will take off from air bases in northIndia and fly for over ten hours to drop bombs over the seas to demonstratetheir capability.
The Indian Navy has also deployed its MiG-29K combat planes, which isdeployed for only maritime strike roles over the sea. The aircraft flyalong the Air Force to demonstrate its striking capabilities against anyfuture threats.
Even though the Air Force insisted that the exercise is to demonstrate itscapabilities and not against any specific country, the force would alsofocus on rapid deployment of troops along the borders with China.
The drills, known as Inter Valley Troop Transfer (IVTT), would be greatlyhelpful to tackle any Doklam type of crisis against China, as the forcewould be able to quickly move troops in large number in case of anyincursion by the People’s Liberation Army.
The force will also show landing and take off operations of its combataircraft from the Advanced Landing Grounds in Arunachal Pradesh andUttarakhand, which have been reactivated in recent years to counter thegrowing Chinese infrastructure on the Line of Actual Control. – India Today