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HomeDefenceRafale, Sukhoi, Chinooks: IAF to launch massive exercise in Eastern sector starting...

Rafale, Sukhoi, Chinooks: IAF to launch massive exercise in Eastern sector starting Thursday

The Chinese have increased their state of alertness in wake of the IAF exercise and have deployed airborne early-warning aircraft at its Shigatse airport.

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New Delhi: Starting Thursday, the Eastern Air Command of the Indian Air Force (IAF) will carry out a major two-day exercise to test its war-fighting capabilities and tactics.

The exercise, though planned much earlier, comes at a time when tension has risen again along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) after the 9 December clash between soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Indian Army.

The Chinese have increased their state of alertness in the wake of the IAF exercise and have deployed airborne early-warning aircraft at its Shigatse airport, sources said.

Open intelligence analyst Damien Symon, who goes by the popular twitter handle @detresfa, has mapped the increased Chinese activity which includes high deployment of long-range surveillance drones among others.

Frequent Chinese exercises had earlier forced the IAF to scramble fighter jets as its air defence systems and radars picked up the neighbour’s air presence close to the LAC but within their own air space.

Sources said the upcoming air exercise would be at the command level and would activate all assets under it.

“The exercise is being held by the Eastern Air Command to validate its tactics in a particular scenario. All assets of the IAF will be in action,” sources said.

They said that the aircraft in action would include the Rafale, stationed at Hasimara in West Bengal, and also the Su-30 MKI.

Sources also said the focus of the exercise was to confirm how quickly offensive and defence tactics could come into play in a particular scenario.

They, however, refused to get into details of what the scenario might be but said there would be more than one.

As part of the exercise, all its bases in the Eastern Command – which include those in Assam’s Tezpur, Chhabua, Jorhat, Panagarh – would be activated.

Sources said there are two elements to the exercise which include defence manuevers — activating of air defence assets — and offensive.

They said the exercise would include operations in scenarios where the early warning airborne aircraft would be in play and also operations in blind.

As reported by ThePrint, ever since tension rose at the LAC in 2020, the IAF has remained in full operational alert and has carried out several changes in its deployment and operational structures to fight off any Chinese threat.

Sources said the IAF has put in place a full offensive and defensive deployment to counter China’s strategy of “Anti Access Area Denial (A2AD)”.

Since the middle of this year, Chinese air activity along the LAC has increased, leading to some frayed nerves in the two air forces.

In August, senior Air Force officers from India and China even held maiden talks to cool tempers.

As per the agreement between India and China, no fighter aircraft or armed helicopter can come within 10 kilometres of the LAC. The limit for logistics helicopters is one kilometre.


Also read: Arunachal clash: Over 200 PLA troops came with spiked clubs, taser guns,  Indian soldiers hit back


 

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