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| March 2010 Issue |
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Knight Riders
Vayu Shakti 2010, the first ever day, dusk and night exercise demonstrates IAF’s fire power
By Vidhi Upadhyay |
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Pokharan, Rajasthan: It was Diwali for the Indian Air Force on the eve of Holi as the country witnessed live, on their television screens, an unprecedented display of IAF’s fire power capability in the first ever day, dusk and night exercise Vayu Shakti 2010. Chief guest President Pratibha Patil witnessed the two and half hour blitz at Pokharan range along with defence minister A.K. Antony, Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh, the three service chiefs, a horde of officers from the three services and the paramilitary forces, military attaches from 28 countries (sans the Pakistani and Chinese attaches), officers of the NDC and the media.
It was, perhaps, for the first time that an exercise was conducted to assure the nation of the capability of the IAF. Speaking to the press after the exercise, Antony said, “I wish to congratulate the air warriors for spectacular display of the fire power and wish to say that the nation is very proud of you. President Pratibha Patil has also conveyed her appreciation to the IAF.” The defence minister categorically denied sending any message to any foreign nation through the fire power demonstration. |
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“This exercise is not meant for sending any signal to any country; its sole purpose was to showcase to the nation, the capability of our air warriors.” Apart from being an exercise in fire power display, Vayu Shakti 2010 also provided a valuable training ground for the IAF pilots who participated in the exercise. ACM P.V. Naik, when asked about the operational objectives of the exercise told FORCE that it was to ‘train my pilots’ as well for such missions. This view of the IAF chief was later endorsed by US air attaché (US to India) Colonel Steward Kowal who told FORCE that apart from being a very successful exercise in terms of precision targeting, it was also a ‘good window for the IAF’ in terms of practicing such manoeuvres like pay load dropping etc.
Vayu Shakti 2010 was not an exercise in the sense that it didn’t have red and blue forces, but was essentially a capability display for the IAF, as an IAF officer explained, “It showcased the capabilities the IAF could and would employ in a situation to degrade the enemy power while assisting the army on the ground.” |
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