Exercise Tarang Shakti to be a biennial drill, says the Indian Air Force

Sulur: Amid a volatile Indo-Pacific situation, the Indian Air Force on Tuesday announced turning the multi-national air exercise Tarang Shakti into a biennial affair with the IAF chief insisting that the drill should not be seen as a “challenge to any other nation.”

“We will definitely take up the case of having this exercise once in every alternate year. We will take a call later on how many nations we can accommodate. But definitely this is not going to be the last one,” Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari said here at the conclusion of the first phase of the drill.

Exercise Tarang Shakti is India’s first multinational air exercise involving 30 nations in its maiden show.

The first phase between Aug 6 to 14 is witnessing participation of German, French, British and Spanish air forces. The second phase will begin at Jodhpur on August 29 with the presence of the US Air Force and Australian Air Force among others.

India never hosted any major multinational air exercise like the Red Flag of the USA and Pitch Black of Australia.

Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari said the force would collate all the debrief points at the end of the phase two and analyse them before taking a call on how many nations could be made a part of the next edition of Tarang Shakti.

This time the IAF invited 51 countries and received positive responses from 29 of them. While 11 countries are bringing their aircraft, 18 of them will join as observers.

Asked about the wargame’s strategic significance in an unstable Indo-Pacific where China is flexing its military muscles, the IAF chief said one shouldn't look at the exercise as a challenge to any other nation.

"This is a training exercise where we learnt how to operate an aircraft with or without datalink, how to have a common communication protocol and worked on common tactics and programmmes. There is no other bjective.”

The Spanish Air Force chief Air Gen Francisco Braco Carbo said such exercises create deterrence among the enemy.

German Air Force chief Lt Gen Ingo Gerhartz said this is the biggest and most complex deployment of the German Air Force in an exercise. “I hope it won't be the last,” he noted.

The chiefs of the French, German and Spanish air forces were in praise for the home grown fighter jet LCA Tejas, which was exposed to such a large force engagement for the first time.

“When I was flying in for the exercise in a Typhoon from Malaysia, I was intercepted by an IAF formation led by the IAF Vice Chief in a Tejas,” recalled Lt Gen Gerhartz.

“I flew on the wings of the formation. It was easy to fly because Tejas was a such a remarkably stable aircraft,” he said.

The Chiefs of French and German air forces took a sortie in LCA Tejas while Air Gen Carbo and Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari took to the skies in a Su-30MKI.