Country Wide IAF Exercise to combat China & Pakistan

More than 15000 IAF personal, including 1300 officers will move from their bases for the country wide exercise that would be conducted separately for western and northern borders across India and deep over Indian waters. On that note IAF has designed the country wide exercise to strengthen the preparedness for future and it is called Ganga Shakti and is scheduled to take place during April 11-21. It will see the involvement of over 1,100 aircrafts and this would mean 3000-4000 sorties per day.

IAF sources have said that first phase of Ganga Shakti would be seen by practice done by forces deployed along western border and second one will be for practice along northern border. IAF sources also said that this is for the first time that Tejas LCA fighter jet will take part in this exercise, although this exercise is conducted every two years. IAF had raised one squadron in 2016 but it awaits the complement of HAL-made fighters for its fleet. IAF is practicing the concept of ‘surge operations’ during the exercise and it will be the first time they are being practiced at the level of IAF. During these IAF will be able to generate more sorties with the same number of aircrafts by improving their maintenance and serviceability.

Sources said that the number of aircrafts during exercise would be much higher than the lay down targets, which is the highlight of the exercise. These high serviceability levels have been made possible with the support from Defence public sector undertakings such as Hindustan aeronautics limited, Bengaluru; it will assign 300 of its best officials for the exercise. The IAF said, “The aim of the exercise is real time coordination, deployment and employment of airpower in short and intense battle scenario. The exercise will hone the war fighting skills of the air warriors in real time scenario, thus aiming IAF’S role as cutting the edge of our nation’s military capability.”