Airliners-India.com

HAWK21M · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 1:08 pm Post subject: Red Flag Exercise

http://pib.nic.in/photo/2008/Jul/l2008070618530.jpg

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/332230.html

The IAF team leaving for Red Flag Exercise.

Can we make it 3-0 Wink

regds
MEL
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Think of the Brighter side !!!

Aseem · Member Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 2841 Location: YYZ

another interesting link

http://www.nellis.af.mil/library/flyingoperations.asp
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[url=http://openflights.org/user/aseemsjohri]

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HamiltonAir · Member Joined: 25 Dec 2006 Posts: 937 Location: Bangalore

Wow this is gonna be amazing, cant wait to see the vids and pics. Why arent the F-22s participating?
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HamiltonAir

Aseem · Member Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 2841 Location: YYZ

btw! folks check this link for IAF's Su-30MKI at Red Flag exercise at Nellis AFB

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kriss22photos/
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[url=http://openflights.org/user/aseemsjohri]

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HAWK21M · Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 1:14 pm Post subject:

Great pics.Any news on the Scores.
regds
MEL
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Think of the Brighter side !!!

Aseem · Member Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 2841 Location: YYZ

Aseem · Member Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 2841 Location: YYZ

click on the photo for photo courtesy.
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[url=http://openflights.org/user/aseemsjohri]

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shivendrashukla · Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 10:56 pm Post subject:

Simply amazing!!!!!!!!!

Aseem · Member Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 2841 Location: YYZ

click on the photo for credits
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[url=http://openflights.org/user/aseemsjohri]

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747-237 · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 12:11 am Post subject:

747-237 · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 12:28 am Post subject:

sammyk · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 12:41 am Post subject:

Nice stuff.

Are there any shots of refueling?

karatecatman · Guest

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/08/indians-hands-t.html
Indians' Hands Tied in U.S. Wargame

By David Axe August 22, 2008 | 9:00:00 AM
Categories: Planes, Copters, Blimps, Training and Sims
India's elite fighter jocks are in Nevada to spar with the best American, South Korean and French pilots at the Red Flag exercise. But the Indian Air Force (IAF) is fighting with its hands tied. Why? To protect the secrets of their top-of-the-line Russian-designed Su-30MKI fighters (pictured), according to Dave Fulghum over at Ares. "To observers' dismay, and no doubt to that of the U.S. intelligence community, the IAF flew with a number of handicaps."

***
Indian Advanced Su-30MKIs Come to USA
Aug 21, 2008
By David A. Fulghum davef@aviationweek.com

American, French and South Korean aircrews are getting a close look at one of the world's fabled aircraft - the Indian air force's Su-30MKI strike fighter.

An Indian air force group of 50 pilots and weapon systems officers - flying eight Su-30MKIs, two Il-78 tankers and an Il-76 transport - are just finishing a month-long deployment to the United States with a training cycle at the latest, annual Red Flag aerial combat excercises based at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.

They were part of a contingent of 246 IAF personnel selected from 20 (fighter) Squadron, Poona; 78 (tanker) Squadron, Agra; 44 (transport) Squadron, Nagpur, and a special operations team trained for combat search and rescue, says Group Captain Dee Choudhry.

Of great interest to observers - and no doubt to U.S. intelligence - was the Su-30MKI's Russian-made, long-range radar and AA-12 Adder air-to-air missile capability. In fact, foreign air force officials admit that they suspect that intelligence gathering goes on at an event like Red Flag.

India's Su-30MKI aircraft offers an especially attractive target. It carries the Tikhomirov Scientific Research Institute of Instrument Design NIIP-BARS radar that so far has only been seen on the MKI. But it's considered a variant of what NIIP developed for Russia's new Su-35 multi-role aircraft and what it's working on for the next-generation PAK-FA fifth-generation stealth fighter.

One long-time military analyst mused to Aviation Week that the event might provide insight, although it was no certainty. "I'll bet your [intelligence] boys hovered up every little squiggly amp from BARS. [Yet] sometimes the [radar's] training mode is just a software package that emulates the radar transmissions, but it's actually not emitting."

Indeed, to observers' dismay, and no doubt to that of the U.S. intelligence community, the IAF flew with a number of handicaps, some of them self-imposed, some not.

Their powerful Russian-made radar was, in fact, emitting, says Choudhry, but operating only in the training mode which limited all its range and spectrum of capabilities. In addition, the IAF wasn't allowed to use chaff and flares to avoid being targeted by surface-to-air missiles nor did its aircraft have the common data link. CDL brings a flow of targeting information into the cockpit displays that improves the accuracy and speed of data transfer and eliminates the need for most communications. The Indian air crews had to rely on voice communications which slowed the process and limited situational awareness.

Despite its limitations, the Su-30MKI's radar was able enough to allow the IAF's Sukhois to participate in a beyond-visual-range fight with U.S. aggressor aircraft carrying simulated AA-10C air-to-air missiles. Because there were so many foreign aircraft capable of offensive counter-air/escort missions (including French Rafales and South Korean F-15Ks), the Sukhois are flying fewer air-to-air missions than Indian team members had hoped, Choudhry says.

"It was almost what we expected," Choudhry says. "Because we couldn't use our chaff and flares, when we were targeted by SAMs we were shot down. And there was no picture in the cockpit to help our situational awareness so the workload on the [aircrews] was very high." Nonetheless, "We came a long way. We trained hard. And the degree of difficulty was not unexpected."

***

We noted a couple months back that the U.S. Air Force's F-22s strangely were sitting out this exercise, missing the chance to tangle with the best "enemy" fighter out there. But with the various restrictions, it probably wouldn't have been anything like a fair or realistic fight.

Regardless, Choudry insisted Red Flag was a good experience for his pilots. Indeed, the Indian Air Force was especially keen to observe U.S. "Net-Centric Warfare" (NCW) operations. "You cannot survive today for long against a good adversary without the NCW capability," IAF vice chief Air Marshal P.V. Naik told The Economic Times. He added that India would debut its own command-and-control networks in 2010.

shivendrashukla · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 9:01 pm Post subject:

Another link here

http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/27sd1.htm

Cheers
Shivendra

karatecatman · Guest

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/09/faux-air-wars-s.html
Faux Air War's Secrecy Problem
By David Axe
September 08, 2008 | 1:30:00 PM

Categories: Planes, Copters, Blimps, Training and Sims

It's the world's most realistic air-war exercise. It's been called "harder han combat" by some pilots. It's Red Flag, hosted by the U.S. Air Force at Nellis, Nevada, up to six times a year. But this "faux air war" has a secrecy problem: the perceived need to guard technology from the prying eyes of ostensible allies limits the training value.

Red Flag has its roots in the Vietnam War, when Vietnamese MiG pilots proved better dogfighters than U.S. pilots. A subsequent Air Force analysis showed that a pilot's odds of survival improved considerably after 10 combat missions. With the Red Flag exercise, the Air Force killed two birds with one Sparrow missile: the training boosted U.S. dogfighting skills while putting new pilots through those first 10 "combat" missions in a training environment.

The exercise takes a "crawl, walk, run" approach, DANGER ROOM correspondent Bryan William Jones explains:

The exercises begin with relatively simple systems including manually controlled SA-2 surface to air missiles with Su-27 or equivalent aircraft flown by aggressor pilots. Intermediate scenarios involve semi-automated SA-5 surface to air missiles and Su-30MKK equivalent aircraft, while the most difficult scenario involve automated systems operating SA-10 surface to air missiles and Su-30MKI aircraft such as those flown currently by the Indian Air Force.

USAF F-15s and F-16s flown by the highly trained aggressor pilots stand in for enemy airplanes. This year they were joined by the real thing: the Indians with their latest Russian-made Su-30MKIs. However the Indians, as we previously reported, took pains to prevent the U.S. from "mapping" the high-end capabilities of their sophisticated radars, limiting their radar usage to only very basic functions -- and therefore somewhat limiting the training value.

There seems to have been an unusual amount of paranoia invested in the latest Red Flag. Not only did the Indians keep their radars under wrap, the French Air Force contingent with their new Rafale fighters complained about high levels of secrecy:

[Colonel Frabrice] Grandclaudon was surprised that very little academic effort was spent by the participants in familiarizing themselves more thoroughly with the aircraft of other air forces. Of course we discussed the practical reasons why this was not possible including concerns with intellectual property and issues of national security on the part of the U.S., France and India, but nevertheless, it was felt that more academic time might have been a valuable investment.

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http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/08/us-spying-on-ou.html

U.S. Spying on Its Pals? (Corrected)
By David Axe August 28, 2007 | 11:00:00 PM
Categories: Secret Squirrel
The U.S. and India have become pretty close friends in recent years. But what's a little spying between best buds? Especially when there's an opportunity to figure out the secrets of the newest Russian-made fighter, the Su-30MKI? As usual, the excellent Air Forces Monthly mag has the scoop:

When the Indian Air Force sent six Su-30MKI Flankers and a couple of Il-78MKI Midas tankers to RAF Waddington [air base] on June 28 [for a two-week exercise], the U.S. and U.K. airborne intelligence agencies were provided with a major coup. It gave them a chance to learn more about the radar frequencies of one of the most feared combat aircraft in the world -- even if it meant "eavesdropping" on their Indian friends.

AFM says that a U.S. RC-135U electronic spy plane just happened to be en route to the U.K from the Middle East at the same time that the Indian aircraft were arriving, giving the U.S. jet a chance to use its radar-frequency measuring equipment to probe the Indians. Why does this matter? Because the Flanker's "Slot Back" N-011 radar will also be used by Chinese and Venezuelan jets -- and if you know its frequency, you can jam. it.

The Americans weren't the only potential spies in the area. The Brits also happened to have a BAC-111 test plane, reportedly sporting frequency-detecting gear, in the area as the Indians flew mock dogfights with British Tornado fighters.

The Indians have a reputation for paranoia (in this case justified), so the Su-30s weren't allowed to use their radars during the mock battles, instead flying only close-range, visual dogfights. But radars in standby mode still radiate, so unless the radars were completely switched off at all times before, during and after the exercise, it's likely that the U.S. and Great Britain scored some seriously valuable intel.

Maybe the U.S. Air Force considers it revenge for the drubbing the Indians handed them a couple years back in the Cope India exercise, where some Alaska-based F-15s got repeatedly "shot down" by Indian jets.

Of course India would have been aware of this.
But are we giving away too much?
The past has shown how easy it is to procure classified information/files/plans both in India and outside.