dwarven1
Lonely Mountain Arms
Indian Air Force, in war games, gives US a run
By Scott Baldauf, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Mon Nov 28, 3:00 AM ET
Mingling over a few rounds of golf, dogfighting a bit over the
jungles of West Bengal - this month's Cope India 2005 war games were
billed as a standard two-week exercise between Indian and American
top guns.
But in website chat rooms devoted to the arcania of fighter aircraft,
there was a buzz. Arre, wa! Oh, wow! Had the Indian Air Force beat
the Americans?
Not exactly, according to observers and participants. The exercises
had mixed teams of Indian and American pilots on both sides, which
means that both the Americans and the Indians won, and lost. Yet,
observers say that in a surprising number of encounters -
particularly between the American F-16s and the Indian Sukhoi-30 MKIs
- the Indian pilots came out the winners.
"Since the cold war, there has been the general assumption that India
is a third-world country with Soviet technology, and wherever the
Soviet-supported equipment went, it didn't perform well," says Jasjit
Singh, a retired air commodore and now director of the Center for Air
Power Studies in New Delhi. "That myth has been blown out by the
results" of these air exercises.
For now, US Air Force officials are saying only that the Cope India
2005 air exercises were a success, and a sign of America's growing
appreciation for the abilities of its newfound regional ally.
But there are some signs that America's premier fighter jet, the F-16
Fighting Falcon, is losing ground to the growing sophistication of
Russian-made fighter planes, and that the US should be more wary
about presuming global air superiority - the linchpin of its military
might.
"The Sukhoi is a ... better plane than the F-16," says Vinod Patney,
a retired Indian Air Force marshal, and former vice chief of air
staff. "But we're not talking about a single aircraft. We're talking
about the overall infrastructure, the command and control systems,
the radar on the ground and in the air, the technical crew on the
ground, and how do you maximize that infrastructure. This is where
the learning curve takes place.
"So let's forget about I beat you, you beat me," he adds. "This is
not a game of squash."
F-16s 'got their clocks cleaned'Tell that to the participants of
bharat-rakshak.com (Guardian of India). On any given day, this
website seems devoted to which Indian fighter plane uses which
missile, with occasional grumblings about why Saurav Ganguly is still
playing on the Indian cricket team. But during Cope India '05, Bharat
Rakshak was a veritable cheering session for the underestimated
Indian Air Force.
Typical was a posting by a blogger who called himself "Babui." Citing
a quote from a US Air Force participant in Cope India '05 in Stars
and Stripes - "We try to replicate how these aircraft perform in the
air, and I think we're good at doing that in our Air Force, but what
we can't replicate is what's going on in their minds. They've
challenged our traditional way of thinking on how an adversary, from
whichever country, would fight." - "Babui" wrote, "That quote is as
good an admission that the F-16 jocks got their clocks cleaned."
Another blogger, Forgestone, advised against such "chest-thumping."
"Coming out on the winning or losing side of a scorecard doesn't
change their large technological edge, their resources, their
experience, their talent, their geostrategic position," he wrote,
referring to the US Air Force.
More recently, an American pilot who participated in the exercise,
added his own two cents on the blog. "It makes me sick to see some of
the posts on this website," wrote a purported US "Viper" pilot. "They
made some mistakes and so did we.... That's what happens and you
learn from it."
The point of the exercise, he said, was for the USAF and the IAF to
train, learn, and yes, play golf alongside each other. "For two weeks
of training, both sides got more out of their training than they
probably would in two months."
US fighter prowess slippingMilitary experts say the joint exercises
occurred at a time when America's fighter jet prowess is slipping.
Since the US victories in the first Gulf War, a war dependent largely
on air power, the Russians and French have improved the aviation
electronics (avionics) and weapons capabilities of their Sukhoi and
Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft. These improvements have given countries
like India, which use the Sukhois and Mirages, a rough parity with US
fighter planes like the F-16 and F-15C. China, too, now has 400 late-
model Sukhois.
Yet, while the Indian Air Force designed the exercises to India's
advantage - forcing pilots to fight "within visual range" rather than
using America's highly advanced "beyond visual range" sensing
equipment - both observers and participants admit that Indian
aircraft and personnel performed much better than expected.
The Su-30 MKI "is an amazing jet that has a lot of maneuverability,"
Capt. Martin Mentch told an Air Force publication, AFPN.
Maneuverability is key for missions of visual air combat.
If it turns out the US Air Force did, in fact, get their clocks
cleaned, it will have been the second time. In Cope India 2004, an
air combat exercise that took place near the Indian city of Gwalior,
US F-15s were eliminated in multiple exercises against Indian late-
model MiG-21 Fishbeds as fighter escorts and MiG-27 Floggers. In the
2005 exercises in Kalaikundi air base near Calcutta, Americans were
most impressed by the MiG-21 Bisons and the Su-30 MKIs.
Indian training surprises USMaj. Mark A. Snowden, the 3rd Wing's
chief of air-to-air tactics and a participant in Cope India 2004,
admitted that the US Air Force underestimated the Indians. "The
outcome of the [2004] exercise boils down to [the fact that] they ran
tactics that were more advanced than we expected," he told Aviation
Week last year. "They had done some training with the French that we
knew about, but we did not expect them to be a very well-trained air
force. That was silly."
One USAF controller working aboard an AWACS (Airborne Warning and
Control System) plane told reporters at Kalaikundi Air Base that he
was impressed by the speed in which Indian pilots responded to target
assignments given them by AWACS. The AWACS, while operated by
Americans, was acting as a neutral party, feeding target assignments
to both Indian and American pilots during the exercise. In most
cases, the Indians responded to target assignments faster than the
American pilots did - a surprising fact, given that this was the
first time Indian pilots had used the American AWACS capability.
Given India's growing economic and diplomatic aspirations, it's not
surprising that many Indians would have the occasional outburst of
jingoism. But Indian pilots know they still have a lot to learn.
"Whether the Indians win or lose is crew room gossip," says Mr.
Patney. "The important thing is for us to be involved with the
Americans; the purpose is to fly alongside each other, to learn from
each other, to see if there is any interoperability. And for the
Americans, the main thing is to see what we [Indians] can do with
limited resources."
By Scott Baldauf, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Mon Nov 28, 3:00 AM ET
Mingling over a few rounds of golf, dogfighting a bit over the
jungles of West Bengal - this month's Cope India 2005 war games were
billed as a standard two-week exercise between Indian and American
top guns.
But in website chat rooms devoted to the arcania of fighter aircraft,
there was a buzz. Arre, wa! Oh, wow! Had the Indian Air Force beat
the Americans?
Not exactly, according to observers and participants. The exercises
had mixed teams of Indian and American pilots on both sides, which
means that both the Americans and the Indians won, and lost. Yet,
observers say that in a surprising number of encounters -
particularly between the American F-16s and the Indian Sukhoi-30 MKIs
- the Indian pilots came out the winners.
"Since the cold war, there has been the general assumption that India
is a third-world country with Soviet technology, and wherever the
Soviet-supported equipment went, it didn't perform well," says Jasjit
Singh, a retired air commodore and now director of the Center for Air
Power Studies in New Delhi. "That myth has been blown out by the
results" of these air exercises.
For now, US Air Force officials are saying only that the Cope India
2005 air exercises were a success, and a sign of America's growing
appreciation for the abilities of its newfound regional ally.
But there are some signs that America's premier fighter jet, the F-16
Fighting Falcon, is losing ground to the growing sophistication of
Russian-made fighter planes, and that the US should be more wary
about presuming global air superiority - the linchpin of its military
might.
"The Sukhoi is a ... better plane than the F-16," says Vinod Patney,
a retired Indian Air Force marshal, and former vice chief of air
staff. "But we're not talking about a single aircraft. We're talking
about the overall infrastructure, the command and control systems,
the radar on the ground and in the air, the technical crew on the
ground, and how do you maximize that infrastructure. This is where
the learning curve takes place.
"So let's forget about I beat you, you beat me," he adds. "This is
not a game of squash."
F-16s 'got their clocks cleaned'Tell that to the participants of
bharat-rakshak.com (Guardian of India). On any given day, this
website seems devoted to which Indian fighter plane uses which
missile, with occasional grumblings about why Saurav Ganguly is still
playing on the Indian cricket team. But during Cope India '05, Bharat
Rakshak was a veritable cheering session for the underestimated
Indian Air Force.
Typical was a posting by a blogger who called himself "Babui." Citing
a quote from a US Air Force participant in Cope India '05 in Stars
and Stripes - "We try to replicate how these aircraft perform in the
air, and I think we're good at doing that in our Air Force, but what
we can't replicate is what's going on in their minds. They've
challenged our traditional way of thinking on how an adversary, from
whichever country, would fight." - "Babui" wrote, "That quote is as
good an admission that the F-16 jocks got their clocks cleaned."
Another blogger, Forgestone, advised against such "chest-thumping."
"Coming out on the winning or losing side of a scorecard doesn't
change their large technological edge, their resources, their
experience, their talent, their geostrategic position," he wrote,
referring to the US Air Force.
More recently, an American pilot who participated in the exercise,
added his own two cents on the blog. "It makes me sick to see some of
the posts on this website," wrote a purported US "Viper" pilot. "They
made some mistakes and so did we.... That's what happens and you
learn from it."
The point of the exercise, he said, was for the USAF and the IAF to
train, learn, and yes, play golf alongside each other. "For two weeks
of training, both sides got more out of their training than they
probably would in two months."
US fighter prowess slippingMilitary experts say the joint exercises
occurred at a time when America's fighter jet prowess is slipping.
Since the US victories in the first Gulf War, a war dependent largely
on air power, the Russians and French have improved the aviation
electronics (avionics) and weapons capabilities of their Sukhoi and
Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft. These improvements have given countries
like India, which use the Sukhois and Mirages, a rough parity with US
fighter planes like the F-16 and F-15C. China, too, now has 400 late-
model Sukhois.
Yet, while the Indian Air Force designed the exercises to India's
advantage - forcing pilots to fight "within visual range" rather than
using America's highly advanced "beyond visual range" sensing
equipment - both observers and participants admit that Indian
aircraft and personnel performed much better than expected.
The Su-30 MKI "is an amazing jet that has a lot of maneuverability,"
Capt. Martin Mentch told an Air Force publication, AFPN.
Maneuverability is key for missions of visual air combat.
If it turns out the US Air Force did, in fact, get their clocks
cleaned, it will have been the second time. In Cope India 2004, an
air combat exercise that took place near the Indian city of Gwalior,
US F-15s were eliminated in multiple exercises against Indian late-
model MiG-21 Fishbeds as fighter escorts and MiG-27 Floggers. In the
2005 exercises in Kalaikundi air base near Calcutta, Americans were
most impressed by the MiG-21 Bisons and the Su-30 MKIs.
Indian training surprises USMaj. Mark A. Snowden, the 3rd Wing's
chief of air-to-air tactics and a participant in Cope India 2004,
admitted that the US Air Force underestimated the Indians. "The
outcome of the [2004] exercise boils down to [the fact that] they ran
tactics that were more advanced than we expected," he told Aviation
Week last year. "They had done some training with the French that we
knew about, but we did not expect them to be a very well-trained air
force. That was silly."
One USAF controller working aboard an AWACS (Airborne Warning and
Control System) plane told reporters at Kalaikundi Air Base that he
was impressed by the speed in which Indian pilots responded to target
assignments given them by AWACS. The AWACS, while operated by
Americans, was acting as a neutral party, feeding target assignments
to both Indian and American pilots during the exercise. In most
cases, the Indians responded to target assignments faster than the
American pilots did - a surprising fact, given that this was the
first time Indian pilots had used the American AWACS capability.
Given India's growing economic and diplomatic aspirations, it's not
surprising that many Indians would have the occasional outburst of
jingoism. But Indian pilots know they still have a lot to learn.
"Whether the Indians win or lose is crew room gossip," says Mr.
Patney. "The important thing is for us to be involved with the
Americans; the purpose is to fly alongside each other, to learn from
each other, to see if there is any interoperability. And for the
Americans, the main thing is to see what we [Indians] can do with
limited resources."
