By IANS
New Delhi : Given the heightened threat perceptions and the need to keep sea and air lines open, the Indian Air Force (IAF) is planning a series of exercises in south India next year on the lines of those conducted last week.
“Our focus next year will be on the skies of south India which hitherto has been a rather dormant area for us,” an officer said.
“We will build on the experience of (the) ‘Dakshin Prahar’ (exercise that concluded Dec 10,)” the officer told IANS, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The (Thiruvananthapuram-based) Southern Air Command is validating the concepts we tested during ‘Dakshin Prahar’ to build for the future,” the officer said.
The heightened threat perception comes in the wake of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels acquiring nascent aerial capabilities that were used twice to bomb the military area of Colombo airport.
While officials here do not see any threat from the Tigers’ air power they say they have to be “prepared for any eventuality”.
This is because the single-engine propeller-driven aircraft the Tigers possess theoretically has the capability of striking at India’s nuclear facilities in Tamil Nadu.
This apart, hundreds of tonnes of explosives were recovered in February from a rebels’ boat that was apprehended off the Tamil Nadu coast.
“Given this, it is incumbent on us to raise our vigil along coastal south India,” the officer pointed out.
‘Dakshin Prahar’ successfully tested the IAF’s new ‘flexi airspace’ concept in tandem with the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
“This was the first time that coordination of civil-military traffic for simultaneous air activity took place at such large scale,” the IAF has said of the effort.
“With the success of ‘Dakshin Prahar’, a new chapter of joint civil-military sharing of airspace, airfields, radars and professional expertise has begun,” the IAF had said.
The exercise was conducted in two phases at Thiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad.
During the exercise, state-of-the-art aircraft like the Mirage-2000 that took off from Thiruvananthapuram and Dundigal, Sukhoi Su-30s from forward bases in Gujarat and northwestern Rajasthan and Jaguars from Arakkonam “simulated friendly and hostile forces over long aerial ranges covering the length and breadth of the country” using air-to air refuelling facilities and off-base operations.
“Operational tactics were formulated to cater to contemporary threat scenarios involving beyond visual range (BVR) weaponry, avionics-laden combat aircraft and far reaching air defence weapons.
Aircraft like the mammoth IL-76, the workhorse AN-32 and the ubiquitous Mi-8 helicopters provided logistical support. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were also deployed during the exercise.
An important aspect of integration during the exercise was the role of the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard in pooling their resources and infrastructure at various places like Visakhapatnam, Goa, Mangalore, Arakkonam and Kochi to smoothen the process of inter-operability.
The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard provided search and rescue vessels up to the Lakshadweep & Minicoy Islands. Airfields and support services were thrown open to use by the AAI, which regulated the incessant airline traffic across the southern skies.
The Indian Army facilitated communication networking and troops for the exercise apart from utilising its air defence artillery guarding a high value target against air raids.
IAF troops also took part in the action with their MANPADS (man portable air defence systems).
In addition to this, a satellite was stationed to cover the specified targets on ground and send high-resolution imagery for analysis before and after an “attack”. It was supplemented by the UAV that took photographs and relayed them to the SAC Operations Room in Thiruvananthapuram.