The Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, said all our objectives were met during the first phase of Exercise Tarang Shakti, which was scheduled between 6 and 14 August at Sulur airbase in Tamil Nadu.
“The Exercise Tarang Shakti is the first and largest multinational exercise conducted on Indian soil in six decades. It has been a week of learning, best practices, and sharing skill sets between participating air forces during the first phase of this exercise. Exercise witnessed brilliant performances and professionalism from all the participants,” the Air Chief said while addressing a press conference with the Chiefs of France, Germany, and Spain.
Terming it an astounding success, the Chiefs highlighted the significance of the exercise’s interoperability and training dimensions in military operations.
Participating the first time in India, German Air Chief Lt Gen Igno Gerhartz said, “Germany participated for the first time in India. The German air force made the biggest and most complicated deployment in this exercise, and it will not be the last one. Our forces have had a great experience and learnt a lot from the most diversified forces, the Indian Air Force.”
Indigenous Tejas Steals the show
Sulur, the home base of Indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) ‘Tejas’, was the showstopper during the first phase among the France Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoons from Germany and Spain.
All Air Chiefs praised the airworthiness of LCA Tejas. Chiefs of France and Germany took a sortie of Tejas while Spain Air Chief Air Gen Francisco Braco Carbo and Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari took to the skies in a Su-30MKI during the airshow organized on Tuesday. Tejas, the smallest fighter in the the exercise showed size does not matter as it executed various ‘blue force’ and ‘red force’ missions along with bigger and modern global jets, described IAF Chief Chaudhari.
“LCA Tejas has been the epitome of the success story of our indigenization efforts. This is the first time Tejas has been exposed to the largest exercise, and it will take part in such exercises in India and outside,” said Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari.
IAF fielded LCA ‘Tejas, LCH ‘Prachand’, Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), and Sarang helicopters aerobatics display during the show as Euro fighter Typhoon also displayed breathtaking versatility.
Exercise Tarang Shakti is India’s first multinational air exercise, involving 30 nations in its maiden show. The first phase witnessed the participation of German, French, British, and Spanish air forces. The second phase will begin at Jodhpur on August 29 with the presence of the US Air Force and Australian Air Force, among others. In this edition of Tarang Shakti, the IAF invited 51 countries and received positive responses from 29 of them. While 11 countries are bringing their aircraft, 18 will join as observers.
Ex TarangShakti 24 – Phase I: Building everlasting bonds as #IAF, #GAF, #FSAF, and #SASF fly and sweat together. A testament to the power of unity and collaboration! @Team_Luftwaffe@Armee_de_lair@EjercitoAire#ExTarangShakti24#SweetBonding #StrongerTogether… pic.twitter.com/WO4uWIaCxm
— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) August 13, 2024
The multi-national air exercise Tarang Shakti will be a biennial affair, with the IAF Chief saying, “We will definitely consider having this exercise once in every alternate year. We will take a call later on how many nations we can accommodate. But definitely this is not going to be the last one.”
After a two-week break, the slightly larger Phase-II will be at AF Station Jodhpur, Rajasthan, from 29 August to 14 September 24. It will include Australia, Singapore, Greece, UAE, and the USA, along with 18 countries as observers.
Ravi Shankar in Sulur Airbase, Tamil Nadu
