Cope-India 2005.
Posted on 11/20/2005 6:19:39 AM PST by Gengis Khan
KALAIKUNDA, NOV 17: As the Cope India 2005 Indo-US air force exercises wound down today after two weeks of feverish action in the eastern skies, the US Air Force were left with a stark, double-edged realization.
One — that it is no longer the unchallenged leader in the skies, and two—for all future joint operations in South Asia, the IAF would, without doubt, be its natural partner.
Vice Commander of the US Pacific Air Forces Lt Gen Dave Deptula said: ‘‘I have never seen a better executed exercise in my 29 years with the USAF. This will go a long way towards establishing peace and stability in the region. Every single objective of this exercise has been met. It was not the US against India. It was an exercise on how to operate together.’’
Admittedly, the two forces still have much to learn from each other, especially in procedures and operational routines. Both sides said that given an immediate security threat, the two forces now had the capability to fly together in response. ‘‘We will now be prepared if called upon in the future for a contingency, unnamed and unknown. We will be in a position to respond. We can get onto the task of resolving crisis situations together without wasting time,’’ Lt Gen Deptula said. Today, the two sides flew a rare high value airborne asset (HVAA) attack simulation over Kalaikunda, which principally illustrated the cohesive nature of this round of war games. In the mission, the USAF’s E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft was escorted by American F-16s and Indian Su-30s in a scenario where the AWACS was attacked by a hybrid mix of American F-16s, Indian Mirage-2000s and Su-30s. In the words of one of Mirage pilots, this, more than any of the other maneuvers in the last weeks, epitomized what Cope India was about. Air Marshal Fali Major, Eastern Commander, said: ‘‘This exercise simulated a hot war scenario in a conventional setting. It was not about terror.’’
During the last Cope India exercise in February 2004, American F-15 pilots had admitted finding it bizarre that their Indian counterparts had routed them in many maneuvers. This time round, the buzzword was a studied ‘jointness’, though pilots told this newspaper off the record that the IAF had maintained its ‘‘one-up’’.
China...The air experts here totally missed that point.
The US pilots probably don't train so much in aerial combat manouvers anymore, which would put them at a disadvantage in some situations.
Don't mistake gracious flattery for the sincerest form. Once the USAF makes a serious initiative to model its training and doctrine on Indian examplars, I'll begin to take any of this hooey seriously.
That said, let's render the IAF their props: tough, capable, patriotic, serious minded.
BTW, do you guys ever realize how lucky you were when the "Land of the Pure" split off?
In international diplomacy you dont say it aloud, it's just understood.
Even your President Bush, now on a visit to China, is trying to come at some sort of understanding with them.
I wont say that the Indians have shown you their best either.
"BTW, do you guys ever realize how lucky you were when the "Land of the Pure" split off?"
In what way?
India has a future.
"that it is no longer the unchallenged leader in the skies" translates to "Give us the F-22 or we'll keep losing to make a point"
Well a country that has no future and nothing to lose is sending in Mujahideens by thousands, and as an insurance against Indian retaliation, has aquired nuke tech (from China) and long range missiles from (NK) and now has them pointed towards India. How lucky is that?
I saw that same show. The pilots of the FA/22 won dogfights against 5 other fighters. Basically, due to the stealth and latest radar/avionics, the FA/22 could blow the other planes out of the sky before they even knew it was there.
Exactly.
Cope-India 2005.
So true. Of course!
The same thing goes when selling clothes. To an oldie wearing hiphuggers: "You look marvelous, simply marvelous!" Billy Crystal doing Ricardo Montalban.
I think, however, that the thread poster took it seriously. Most of us responded with the standard, knee-jerk flippancy. Harhar, me included, of course.
You are THOROUGHLY correct.
Do you happen to have a photo of this new wunderkind?
It sounds awesome.
Oh, great. How long before the Indian Frankenstein turns on us?
Good one!
Unless you are command and control or perhaps a pilot, the people involved in these excersizes don't usually see much. I was a microwave radio tech, and my orders usually went something like..."You guys go to these coordinates(usually a hilltop) and set up a link with these freqs over to that hilltop over there. You will need to set up a defensive perimeter, as we may or may not send up an Opposition Force to neutralize you."
Then we would sit there for 2 weeks playing cards. Once in awhile we even saw an airplane. It was probably either protecting us or taking us out (we usually didn't even know until after the excersize.)
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