Kalaikunda Air Base, India.
Posted on 11/12/2005 8:43:13 AM PST by Qaz_W
KALAIKUNDA AIR STATION, India (AFPN) -- For the first time, U.S. pilots faced the Indian Air Force’s most advanced, and newest, fighter -- the Su-30 MKI -- during an exercise Cope India 06 mission here.
F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots Capt. Martin “Gabby” Mentch and 1st Lt. Robert “Pipes” Stimpson were the first to mix it up with the Su-30s Nov. 9.
The Airmen, deployed here with the 13th Fighter Squadron from Misawa Air Base, Japan, flew against the new jets, which have a thrust-vector capability and updated avionics.
The MKI “is an amazing jet that has a lot of maneuverability,” an essential trait when fighters fly within visual range of their enemy during combat missions, Captain Mentch said.
The American fighters are also squaring off against an older version of the Su-30 Flanker during the exercise, which runs through Nov. 19. The Indians are also flying the MiG-21 Fishbed, MiG-27 Flogger, MiG-29 Fulcrum and Mirage 2000 against U.S. Airmen participating in the exercise.
With all these different types of aircraft, the training the pilots are getting here is invaluable, said Lt. Col. Hugh “Hef” Hanlon, the Misawa squadron commander.
“Flying against dissimilar aircraft gives us a different level of training than if we were back home just flying against ourselves,” he said.
Colonel Hanlon also said flying against the Indian aircraft is a thrill.
“In all my 18 years in the Air Force, I’ve dreamed of going up against these aircraft,” he said.
In addition to the initial MKI-F-16 encounter, the exercise has another piece of history to it.
Americans are learning from their Indian counterparts that this is the first time U.S. Airmen have operated from here since World War II. Back then, Army Air Forces pilots flew supply missions from here. Many of those missions were to China, over “the hump” of the Himalaya Mountains.
About 250 U.S. Airmen from throughout the Pacific region are participating in the exercise, which Colonel Hanlon said is “a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
"We’re proud to represent the Air Force and the United States of America,” he said.
Aren't these the planes that allowed Indian pilots to run rings around our men? Didn't we lose every single mock dogfight against them?
Kalaikunda Air Base, India.
Which I believe is the reason we have advanced our standoff capability to such a high degree. Of course, I'm just an old ground pounder so I'll leave it to the go fast guys to debate.
it greatly depends on the skill of the pilots involved
It matters not who won or who lost in the “dog fights” between India and the US.
All that matters is that parties, which political correctness precludes me from naming, believe that they are assured of 72 virgin’s or should that be dates (Wink), if they attempt to take on the two
Awesome
That was a difficult job well done.
Please convey my personal appreciation to your Dad, as I hate Sea Food, and the idea of chomping on Sushi and commenting on this article is difficult.
As an Indian, it would have been a disaster to let the Japanese into India. I am quite happy to grapple with the job of typing what I have rather than having to do it in Kanji (Wink............Where are the emoticons)
He left this life in 1966 at age 60.
Or a certain large Asian country that has also been buying Sukhois and been feeling big for its britches.
That's a big picture.
To bad our F-22's couldnt be there. It would clean house. The F-15C(also the pilots were from Alaska and not a main interceptor force) from last time was old and didnt have AESA radar. The F16 is old as well but I think the D block is there. I guess the F-22 would be over kill for the exercise.
I ment ASEA. Bloody typos.
And yes, this is the same exercise where last year the Su-30s defeated the F-15s, but the F-15s couldn't use BVR missiles, AWACS, and it was something like 10 against 4!
No, as to the Americans. In the previous rounds, the US flew F-15s instead of F-16s. It appears that the Indians were using the SU-30 in that round, which is a nice plane.
If the rules are more or less fair, the US will easily beat the MiG 21s, 27s and 29s as well as the Mirages, but will have their hands full with the Su-30s. (My guess is that the Americans will win this time to encourage the Pakistanis to go ahead with the F-16 purchase that has been delayed.)
Now, if they were able to beat an F-22, we would know that the exercises were a joke.
Our purpose is to get a feel for combat against Soviet type aircraft.
Use of the F-22 would not allow engagements to last long enough for either side to learn anything.
Yeah I keep reading in the indian media like india-defence where they trump up their last exercise like we got annihilated by them and fought on even terms. Very annoying. If we wanted air dominance over India we could have it easily. We are just training with an ally to get a feel for chinas hardware.
It's a reduced view, full-size picture from the af.mil website. I am sorry if it killed bandwidth on your internet connection, I have no idea how to go about reducing it with a simple html code.
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