IAF pilots to fly F16s in joint air exercise

The USAF will also bring a pair of Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers for mid-flight refuelling, though IAF is understood to have communicated its interest in manoeuvering with American AWACS aircraft, most likely the Boeing-Northrop E-3 AWACS. The rationale: IAF wants to clock as many flying hours as it can possibly get with AWACS before the three Phalcon AWACS planes begin arriving from Israel in 2007. The Force will field Su-30MKIs, Mirage-2000Hs, MiG-21 Bisons and MiG-27M ground strike jets for the November Cope India exercises.

Sources said Pentagon’s confirmation that F-16s will be participating and the IAF’s keenness on flying with American AWACS were communicated between March 7-10 in Hawaii at a meeting of the Executive Steering Group under the Indo-US Defence Policy Group (DPG), attended by the IAF’s vice-chief Air Marshal S.K. Malik.

The Force is also gunning to participate in the 2006 Red Flag combined air exercises overseen by the USAF’s Nevada-based Air Warfare Center. The Pentagon has taken India’s interest under consideration. The Red Flag exercises, held by the US and allied countries at the Nellis AFB in Nevada, are said to make for the closest simulation of a war scenario of any combined air exercise in the world. It involves comprehensive joint manoeuvres with fighters, bombers, UAVs, electronic countermeasure suppression planes, air superiority jets, AWACS and mid-air refuellers.

The joint manoeuvres planned for the November exercises will be more comprehensive and intricate than those engaged in during the first Cope India at Gwalior.

Creating more stable balance of power: Rice

WASHINGTON: US has claimed it was creating a ‘‘more stable’’ balance of power in South Asia. ‘‘The sale of F-16s to Pakistan… But also, the decision to participate in the request for information from India for high-performance aircraft means we believe these two relationships can develop on independent tracks,’ said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday. —PTI