November 19, 2007: The Indian
government has agreed to allow their air force to participate in Red Flag
training exercises, with the U.S. Air Force, in the United States. This will
cost the Indians about $25 million (fuel and other expenses to get 30 Su-30
fighters, plus Il-76 transports for refueling and maintenance gear, to the
United States).
The U.S. Air Force Red Flag
operation was founded during the Vietnam war, to provide more realistic
training. It has been very succcessful. Originally it was conducted at one air
base, which was equipped with special communications and computer gear to
monitor the activities of all aircraft (for scoring, and later critique). But
now there are two Red Flag equipped bases, one in Nevada, and another in
Alaska.
It's generally recognized that
Red Flag (and the earlier U.S. Navy "Top Gun" program) provides the best
peace-time combat training in the world. The Indian pilots are eager to
partake, and to pit their Su-30s against the best the U.S. Air Force has to
offer. Details of this particular training exercises have not been released
yet, but they may involve F-22s, as well as F-16s and F-15s.
