16 February 2019 : Exercise at Pokhran
Exercise Vayu Shakti 2019 was conducted by the Indian Air Force at the Pokhran ranges near Jaisalmer on 16 February 2019. It was a day and night exercise, conducted in two phases to showcase operational prowess of the IAF with various simulated targets to demonstrate the lethality and effectiveness of the IAF. A range of munitions were employed as appropriate to meet operational requirements and destruction of targets with precision and cost-effectiveness.
Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa flew in directly to the range in a C-130J Super Hercules, also demonstrating this tactical transport’s unique STOL attributes, and was received by Air Marshal HS Arora AOC-in-C, South Western Air Command. Soon followed was release of a Coffee Table book titled ‘1971 Indo-Pak War : An Aerial Account’.
As precursor to the Fire Power Display itself, three Mi-17 helicopters flying the national flag and the IAF ensign flew past the grandstand, followed immediately by a Jaguar recce aircraft at low level taking images of the grandstand followed by the supersonic run by a MiG-29 fighter leaving a loud sonic boom in its wake.
Some 137 aircraft participated in the fire power demonstration and consisted of the Su-30MKI, MiG-27, MiG-29 UPG Tejas LCA, Mirage 2000, MiG-21 Bison, Hawk Mk.132, An-32, C-130 Hercules and the ALH Rudra. Among the ‘enemy targets’ destroyed with precision strikes were simulated transporter erector launchers of surface-to-surface missiles, troops and supply convoys, AFVs, radar sites, railway yards and military headquarters.
During the pre-sunset phase, an Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) aircraft flew past, dispensing anti-missile flares, making a spectacular scene in the sky.
The second phase of Exercise Vayu Shakti began at sundown and highlighted the IAF’s capability of conducting special heliborne operations, including induction of troops by low hover jumps and rappelling with Garud Special Forces carrying out anti-insurgency operations in an urban setting. An Mi-17 with ‘Bambi bucket’ showed the extinguishing of fires.
Highlight of the third phase, even as darkness enveloped the desert, was launch of an Akash SAM destroying a designed target. In an impressive sequel, Mi-17V5 and Mi-35 helicopters fired a barrage of rockets on simulated enemy targets and thereafter Su-30s, Jaguars and MiG-27s resumed air-to-ground firing to destroy remaining targets.
The grand finale was a scintillating display of flare dispensation by an An-32 and a C-130J Super Hercules that lit up the night sky.
The event was attended by Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa, Chief of the Air Staff, General Bipin Rawat, Chief of the Army Staff and a large number of diplomats and senior officers of the Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force.
NB: Exactly ten days later, the IAF launched air strikes in earnest, against real enemy targets in the eastern edge of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan.