Come October, frontline aircraft of six countries will fly into India for a major air exercise. This will be the first time the Indian Air Force will be hosting a multilateral air force exercise.
Confirming the upcoming event on the sidelines of a seminar in the national capital on Wednesday, the IAF chief Air Chief Marshal V.R. Chaudhari said: “Twelve nations will participate in the ‘Tarang Shakti’ exercise, of which six nations will participate with their aircraft while another six will join in as observers.”
While the participating countries have not been named as yet as the final clearances are still awaited, THE WEEK came to know from sources that the countries that will send their aircraft include the US, the UK, France, Japan and Australia.
The war exercise will be held in the Rajasthan sector, one source said.
India, US, Japan and Australia are members of the Quadrilateral Security Group or the Quad, a grouping China has been very critical of.
While coordination, interoperability and integration will be among the key themes that will dominate the exercise, it will send strong signals to India’s adversaries in the region.
While the Indian Army and the Indian Navy have been hosting multilateral exercises from time to time, this will be the IAF’s first such event.
On the other hand, the IAF has been participating with its platforms in war exercises with like-minded nations all across the globe from the US to Australia to Europe.
Nationally, in recent times, the focus of the Indian military has also been to hold joint exercises of its three armed services so as to further promote jointness and integration in the historic move towards the setting up of ‘Theatre commands’ as opposed to the existing functional commands.
