By IANS
New Delhi : The Indian Air Force (IAF) chief, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major, left here Sunday on a weeklong visit to Britain during which he will witness a joint air drill being conducted by the two air forces.
During the visit, Major will also visit RAF Valley, the Royal Air Force station on the island of Anglesey in Wales, where Indian pilots are currently being trained on the Hawk advanced jet trainer (AJT) that will be inducted into the IAF later this year.
He will also meet his British counterpart, Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, and attend the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire before returning home.
Codenamed Indradhanush, the joint air drill that began at RAF Waddington July 2 marks the first time the IAF is participating in such an exercise in Britain. A similar exercise had been held at Gwalior last year.
The joint exercise features IAF pilots in the frontline Sukhoi Su-30 combat jets matching their skills against their RAF counterparts in the Eurofighter Typhoon, the first time the two aircraft have been ranged against each other.
The Eurofighter is one of the contenders for an IAF order for 126 multi-role combat aircraft. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has cleared the purchase and a global tender is likely to be floated later this month.
The operational part of the exercise began with a series of one-to-one air combat sorties.
"Both sets of pilots landed with their much-touted reputations intact as each side tested their potential in the air to their limits," an IAF release said.
"These sorties were premised not entirely on having winners or losers – but more for their evaluator and training values as encapsulated in the objectives. Both sides ended-up sharing an enhanced respect for each other's capabilities – both in terms of training values, and combat potentials of the diverse aerial platforms," the release added.
While the RAF fielded some of its most-experienced and highly qualified pilots, some of them being very senior performance evaluators in active service, the IAF pilots were a mix of young to middle-level pilots.
"The RAF pilots were candid in their admission of the Su-30's superior manoeuvring in the air, just as they had studied, prepared and anticipated. The IAF pilots on their part were also visibly impressed by the Typhoon's agility in the air," the release said.