DTN News - INDIA DEFENSE NEWS: Air Force And Army Conducting Joint Military Exercise In NEFA
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 5, 2012: The air force and the army are conducting an exercise across the eastern and northeastern states to test defences and special operations in the event of hostilities with China. This is the largest exercise of its kind.
“This time we are focused on the Brahmaputra Valley, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram to exercise our entire capabilities in all roles in conjunction with the army to disrupt enemy intrusion and take the battle to the adversary,” Air Marshal M. Matheswaran, senior air staff officer of the Shillong-headquartered Eastern Air Command, told The Telegraph.
Codenamed “Pralay”, the exercise was designed by the Calcutta-headquartered Eastern Army Commander, Lt General Bikram Singh, and the Eastern Air Commander, Air Marshal S. Varthaman.
The exercise area is spread over the eight northeastern states and Bengal but action is mostly concentrated along the Brahmaputra Valley and Arunachal.
The air force has also deployed its assets from other commands to the east and northeast for the exercise, which is expected to conclude on March 3. “Pralay” began on February 29 but the mobilisation for it started on February 20.
More than 70 aircraft — including the airborne warning and control system (AWACS) planes, Sukhoi 30MKi, MiG-29, MiG-27 and Mirage 2000 combat planes — have been deployed.
This is the first time that the Israeli Phalcon AWACS are being tested in a simulated combat environment on such a scale. AWACS are designed to detect, acquire and designate targets for other fighter aircraft. Mid-air refuellers have also been deployed to practise long-range strike missions.
“Drills that will help us validate joint operational directives in the valleys and the hills are being emphasised,” Matheswaran said.
The air force spokesperson, Wing Commander Gerard Galway, said the eastern command holds an annual exercise. But the deployment of assets from the western and central air commands to the east shows that the scale this time is much larger.
The war-gamed scenario is of a short but intense conflict. Matheswaran said the AFNET — the air force’s own optic-fibre cable grid — was being used for voice, data and visual communication.
“This exercise is bringing out the net-centric capabilities that we are developing,” he said. The exercise would culminate by concentrating on a few unspecified areas in Assam and Arunachal.
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