By IANS
New Delhi : The Indian and Singaporean air forces Monday began a 19-day war games aimed at improving the ground attack capabilities of their pilots.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is fielding a squadron of MiG-27 combat jets and the Singapore Air Force a similar number of F-5 fighters for the exercise codenamed Sindex-2007.
The drill, being conducted at the Kalaikunda Air Force Base in West Bengal, will conclude Dec 13.
Indicative of their burgeoning military ties, the two countries had last month inked a five-year defence cooperation agreement to permit Singapore to permanently station some of its assets in India and enable its army and air force to exercise regularly in this country.
They had also signed a long-term pact in October for conducting joint training and exercises between their air forces.
Singapore’s armed forces have been regularly conducting joint drills since 2003 under a defence cooperation pact with India. The new agreement will serve to institutionalise the exercises.
Singapore has similar agreements with other countries like Australia, France, Taiwan, Thailand and the US.
India is also a regular participant in the Shangri La Dialogue regional security grouping that Singapore hosts.