By IANS,
Colombo : Pacific Airlift Rally (PAR), co-hosted by the US and the Sri Lanka air forces, will take place at the Ratmalana airport in Colombo from Aug 22. India will also take part.
The rally is a biennial, military airlift symposium sponsored by the US Pacific Air Forces for states in the Asia-Pacific region.
This year marks the eighth iteration of the PAR exercise series which began in 1997.
The rally will focus on enhancing airlift interoperability among 21 regional militaries in support of multilateral humanitarian assistance/disaster relief operations.
Exercise-related events include informational seminars and expert briefings, a command post exercise that addresses military airlift support required during natural disasters, and a field training exercise that builds upon the command post exercise.
Tabletop exercise participants include Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, the Maldives, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, the US and Vietnam.
Field training exercise participation will include three US Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft from the 374th Airlift Wing at Yokota Airlift Wing, Japan; and one C-130 each from the Royal Malaysian Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force and the Sri Lanka Air Force.