IAF starts war-time drill in five states

Kolkata: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Wednesday launched a major war-time exercise in two rounds with SU-30 MKI fighter aircrafts and HAWK 132 aircrafts at six airfields in five states: Assam, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland in the eastern theatre.

While two aircrafts have been deployed from 106 squadron at Imphal, two more are from 102 Sqn at Dimapur while three others from 2 Sqn at Kolkata with 2 from Chabua and 5 from Tezpur, according to sources. At least seven of them are SU-30s.

Eastern Air Command spokesperson Wing Commander Ratnakar Singh said, "The EAC has planned fighter operations from six Airfields in its area of operations namely Dimapur , Imphal , Guwahati , Kolkata , Pasighat and Andal."

He elaborated, "The exercise will be in two phases from October 16 to 19  and October 29 to November and it will be part of capability building up and operational training of undertaking operations from dispersed locations in case of hostilities."

As part of the drill SU-30 aircraft landed at the Kolkata airport from its base in Assam in the afternoon.

Wg Cdr Singh added, "The exercise will familiarize the IAF crew with the procedure of flying at these busy airfields and coordinate with civilian counterparts . It will help familiarising the civilian functionaries at these  airfields in the conduct of military operations."