IAF pilots to Take to British Skies During Ex-Indradhanush

New Delhi, June 22 (UNI) Continuing the ongoing saga of defence cooperation with the United Kingdom, a 200-member Indian Air Force (IAF) contingent is to leave here coming Sunday to participate in joint air exercises commencing in the UK next month.

Following the success of the first ever Indo-UK joint air exercise held last year at Gwalior, this sequel -- called Exercise 'Indradhanush-07' -- is slated from July 2 to 12 and will be held at the Royal Air Force (RAF) airbase, Waddington.

In this reciprocal exchange, the air exercise -- being held in the British skies for the first time ever -- shall see six Su-30 MKI multi-role combat aircraft of the IAF's Pune-based '30 Squadron' -- nicknamed 'Rhinos' -- participating.

The Su-30 MKIs will be complemented by one IL-78 (mid-air refueller) for aerial-refuelling enroute as the fighters take the long ferry route with stopovers at Doha (Qatar) and Tanagra (Greece) before reaching UK on June 28.

While the IAF will operate the Su-30 MKIs, their RAF 'rivals' will be fielding their Tornadoes, Hawks and Typhoon aircraft.

The IL-78 will also participate in the exercise, enhancing and demonstrating the IAF's strategic reach. Besides, two IL-76 transport aircraft will ferry men and materials to UK.

Group Captain Girish Saini is leading the IAF contingent as the exercise Director, and Wing Commander AC Chopra is the deputy leader. Wing Commander Bharti leads the pack of 20 fighter pilots and two navigators, the latter also doubling as weapons systems operators (WSO) in the Su-30 MKIs.

Other members in the contingent include air traffic and fighter controllers, engineers, medical officer, logistics officer, and observers besides officers from the Tactical Air Combat Development Establishment (TACDE) of the IAF.

The exercise is aimed at fostering closer defence cooperation ties with UK as a process emerging out of the series of Indo-UK Defence Consultative Group (DCG) meetings that began in 1995.

The now annually featuring 'Indradhanush' series air exercise with the RAF aims at enhancing mutual operational understanding of each other's operational concepts besides familiarisation with other aspects of maintenance, procedures and administrative practices for future cooperation between the IAF and RAF.

In addition, such exercises will help identify areas of commonality for future detachments and joint air exercises.

Prior to the exercise, IAF Su-30 MKIs and the IL-78 refueller aircraft will also participate at the Waddington Air Show slated from June 30 to July 1.

After the completion of the exercise at Waddington, two Su-30 MKI and the IL-78 refueller aircraft will proceed to join the Royal Air Tattoo planned at the RAF airbase of Fairford from July 16 to 18.

UNI