Indian Air Force goes into action at the prestigious "Exercise Red Flag" in the US

The tough and prestigious Exercise Red Flag formally began at Air Force Base Nellis, Nevada USA on 10 August 2008 with inaugural briefings and mission planning by the participating air forces.

The previous day was the lead day for preparations.

The Red Flag 2008 sees the Indian Air Force participating with eight Su-30MKIs, two IL-78 tankers, an IL-76 aircraft and 247 personnel. Other participating forces include the French Air Force with their Rafale fighters, the South Korean Air Force with F-15s and the USAF with F-15s and F-16s.

The IAF and the other visiting air forces along with a large USAF element would be part of the Blue Forces (Friendly) which would engage in combat with the Red Forces. The Red Forces are the "Aggressors" with F-15 and F-16 aircraft of 64th and 65th Aggressor squadrons of USAF based at Air Force Base Nellis.

Exercise Red Flag provides a realistic war situation in which the Blue Force pilots will have all possible odds `thrown` at them. Availability of a large air to air range with threat replication contributes to the tremendous training value of the exercise. The replication of the air war would see the IAF's Su-30MKI aircraft participating in suppression of enemy air defence (SEAD) air to air and air to ground missions.

The IL-78 tankers and USAF AWACS would be in active support role. The IL-76 would undertake tactical transport operations and large force engagements operations.

During the exercise a set of Red Flag team forms the `White Force' and use high tech instrumentation and mission debrief tools to evaluate the performance of the participants in a clinical and detached manner.

During the exercise the Blue force are made to change their plans often to put them under pressure. The White Force watches the entire exercise in real time on monitor screens on ground. Kill Removal (removal of the pilots and aircraft assumed shot by the enemy) makes the exercise more realistic.

Addressing the participating contingent, commander Group Captain D Choudhury said "We have trained long and hard for this day. It is the time to show-case our professionalism. I have total faith and confidence in you. The world is watching us, so gentlemen lets show them what we are made of."