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New
Delhi, 04 July 2005
In
his analysis of the recent IAF Exercises Garuda II,
just concluded in France, Sayan Majumdar has given
us an excellent review of where the Indian Armed
Forces are in the the world ladder of achievements
abroad.
Currently
the Army Chief is in Oman and then will visit the
UK. The Navy Chief with an armada led by INS Viraat
is soon to visit Malaysia and the East. The Army
will take part in Special Forces exercises in Russia
in September according to General Alexander Kolmakov.
The US Air Force F-15s from Kadena in Japan, will be
in Kaliakunda later this year led by Brig Gen Jan
Marc Juas. Big-ticket happenings but the Army lost
some 20 Jawans recently in Kashmir and Manipur.
While
we salute the Armed Forces we would also like to
caution them to attend to house keeping. The list is
long and cases of corruption even at high levels
need watching.
The
Indian Government it appears is awash with money
having garnered huge taxes with more to come, while
unfortunately the Senior Citizens and the soldiers
of the past who built up the very Armed Forces with
sacrifices are themselves being sacrificed and
forgotten. The Harvard educated Finance Minister
Chidmbaram has cut the senior citizens’ tax
benefits by Rs 50,000 and got away with it by some
smooth talking. Gujrat is in floods and the Armed
Forces are out in strength.
We
learn that the Communist party are baiting the
Finance Minister and the Foreign Minister Natwar
Singh as, according to the CPM, they are both
exceeding their brief on the Common Minimum
Programme and other policies. The BHEL disinvestment
is the ruse and India cannot afford any political
destabilisation at this stage.
The
Armed Forces are the beneficiaries of the
overflowing coffers. But the 'One Rank, One Pension'
promise made to the senior citizens, appears buried
and the Top Brass are not reviving it. We wish to
convey that all is not rosy and even the recent US
India framework for defence will not be easy to
implement with our umbilical cord and reliance with
Russia.
The
message is that while we must attend to India's
Expeditionary Aspirations, our internal house needs
cleaning up too and that is the more difficult task!
Garuda
II, IAF’s Expeditionary Aspirations
By
Sayan Majumdar
The
Indian Air Force (IAF) and the French Armee de
l’Air (Adl’A) recently conducted their second
bi-lateral air exercise ‘Garuda II', a two-week
long exercise, at Istres Air Force Base, near
Marseille, southern France between June 16 and 30.
Incidentally 'Garuda-I' held at Gwalior, India, in
February 2003 was the first-ever joint
multi-national air-combat exercise participated by
IAF thus terminating a long period of isolation from
the French.
The
IAF proved immensely flexible in integrating the new
schedule and to opportunities and experiences,
offered by the multi-national air exercises. The
previous year 2004 was a saturated one for the IAF
as far as multi-national exercises were concerned.
After convincingly defeating United States Air Force
(USAF) F-15 pilots in Exercise Cope India at Gwalior,
the IAF took six Jaguar strike-fighters to Alaska
during July 2004 to operate with the USAF in
Exercise Cooperative Cope Thunder. In other
exercises the IAF took part in operations with the
services of Singapore (Exercise Ankush) and South
Africa (Exercise Golden Eagle) last autumn.
Garuda
II reportedly focused on Beyond Visual Range (BVR)
combat and In-Flight Refueling (IFR) procedures with
IAF Sukhoi-30Ks competing against the Adl’A Mirage
2000-5, which incidentally is one of the four
multi-role fighter aircraft the IAF is considering
buying and is regarded to be the “unofficial
frontrunner” due to IAF’s personal fascination
for the type. The IAF was keen to learn and absorb
French Air Force's ''experience and employment
philosophy,'' as during Garuda-I, the French Adl’A
utilised their Mirage-2000 in a somewhat different
and more effective way and getting optimum results,
especially in the BVR arena. The Adl’A possessed
the elaborate BVR experience on the skies over
Kosovo and Iraq and consequently refined their
tactics. The IAF was surely pleased to “receive”
the knowledge albeit losing the BVR engagements
initially. However, in Within Visual Range (WVR)
combat the IAF overwhelmed the French convincingly
throughout sharing an “awesome experience” in
the words of French pilots.
For
participation in Exercise Garuda II six Sukhoi-30K
drawn out from the No. 24 Squadron 'Hunting Hawks',
along with an Illyushin-78MKI IFR tanker and an
Illyushin-76 transport aircraft, was flagged off
from Bareilly Air Force Station (AFS) by Vice-Chief
Air Marshal S K Malik on June 9. The aircraft
initially moved to Jamnagar, and left on June 12 for
Istres via Jyanklis located near Alexandria, Egypt.
The IAF contingent was led by Group Captain Shreesh
Mohan and comprised 120 personnel. The flying
component was led by Commanding Officer of the
'Hunting Hawks' squadron, Wing Commander KV Raju.
The IAF staff of the Agra-based Illyushin-78
‘Battle Cry’ Mid-Air Refuelling Squadron (MARS)
may be considered as the “lucky guys” as one
posted to join this particular squadron can in true
sense “see the world”. IAF is optimally using
its MARS assets and a strong possibility exists of
its growth.
The
Garuda II exercises were held on the air base 125
"Charles Monier" of Istres and marked the
first deployment of Sukhoi-30s in Europe. The French
Adl’A deployed some 12 Mirage 2000-5 and Mirage
2000C variants of the squadrons of 2/5
"Island-of-France", 1/2 "Storks"
and 3/4 "the Limousin" as combat types
plus a KC-135 IFR tanker. A single Mirage 2000N
nuclear strike variant was also reportedly involved.
The missions carried on and perfected were flights
in mixed patrols including missions of interceptions
and close combat under the control of a Boeing E-3F
‘Sentry’ Airborne Warning & Control System (AWACS)
platform. The BVR armoury of both sides included
active-radar homing and infrared “fire &
forget” Beyond Visual Range Air-to Air Missiles (BVRAAMS).
While the IAF Sukhoi-30s carried the Russian RVV-AE
(AA-12 Adder), the Adl’A Mirage 2000s carried the
MICA. Interestingly, on June 20, Chief of Staff of
the IAF, Air Chief Marshall S P Tyagi on invitation
of his French counterpart Richard Wolsztynski
witnessed the air exercises minutely on board the
Adl’A E-3F ‘Sentry’ AWACS platform. No wonder
the IAF is eagerly awaiting induction of its own
PHALCON AWACS platform plus a few indigenous
developments.
Group
Captain Shreesh Mohan declined to give the maximum
range of the Sukhoi-30s, in addition of IFR from the
Illyushin-78. Yet the French contingent is well
aware of the fact that Russian Sukhoi-27/30 variants
have attended their highly prestigious Paris Air
Show “without prior notice” flying non-stop from
Zhukovsky air field, near Moscow on internal fuel
only. Designer-General of the "OKB Sukhoi"
Mikhail Simonov loves to spring surprises often!
Nevertheless, the Flanker variants were on those
transits flown in medium to high altitudes and it
will be interesting to know the lo-lo-lo penetration
range of the IAF Sukhoi-30MKI variant as the
aircraft type was initially reported to be developed
as a perfect counterpart of USAF F-15E ‘Strike
Eagle’. Hints were made of some improvisations
made in airframe and engines which in initial
Flanker variants were tailor-made for operations in
medium to high altitudes.
A
lot has been said and written on IAF Sukhoi-30s yet
its low altitude performance is seldom discussed.
The IAF officials for good reasons have declined to
share this information. In IAF service the colour
schemes of Sukhoi-30 range from “shades of Blue”
to “Ghost Grey” associated with primarily air
defence types. It appears that the IAF Top Brass is
unwilling to expose such an invaluable asset to
enemy ground fire unnecessarily and even in strike
missions in extreme circumstances the “terminal
leg” will be covered by stand-off guided missiles
like the Israeli Popeye series or Indo-Russian PJ-10
BrahMos. The reported presence of Mirage 2000N in
Garuda II may necessitate fair amount of “low
level action” and the details are eagerly awaited.
Another
set of very important procedures during the Garuda
II exercises included cross-refueling exercises with
Sukhoi-30s receiving fuel from the French KC-135
tanker. In turn a French Mirage 2000 received fuel
from the IAF Illyushin-78 IFR tanker. The
cross-refueling exercises meant that if France or
India sent combat jets to alternate locations it
could ask for refueling support from “Allied
forces”. Both the IAF Illyushin-78MKI and Adl’A
KC-135 IFR tankers use the flexible and versatile
drogue-and-hose refueling system, while the C-135 is
also equipped with the rigid boom used by the USAF
although a miniature “hose unit” can be attached
to the rigid boom if felt necessary. The
cross-refueling exercises do point out the possible
IAF desire to gear itself up to operate as a part of
multi-national coalition forces. The emergence of
Sukhoi-30MKI fighters in the IAF inventory in
conjunction with projected weapon systems like R-172
ultra-long range BVRAAM and BrahMos multi-purpose
strike ordnance ensures IAF’s place prominently in
critical aspects of possible overall operations
carried out by Allied coalition forces.
After
all, with a permanent Indian seat in the United
Nations Security Council, the Indian Armed Forces
may well be frequently summoned to fulfil such
global obligations!
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