It's Sukhoi vs Eurofighter as IAF 'takes on' RAF

NEW DELHI: Top-notch fighters andother aircraft from India and UK will match their combat skills in the`Indra-Dhanush' joint exercise at Kalaikunda airbase in West Bengal later thismonth.While the British Royal Air Force will deploy their spanking new Eurofighter jets for the exercise slated to begin from October 20, the IAF fleet will be led by the `air dominance' Sukhoi-30MKI fighters."Theexercise will be held in an AWACS (airborne warning and control systems)environment, with air defence being a major thrust area. We will be fieldingdifferent types of our fighters," said a senior official.Both theIndian and British forces are also expected to use their mid-air refuellingaircraft, like the IL-78 and VC-10 tankers, during the combatmanoeuvres."The aim of the joint exercise is to learn from eachother and enhance mutual operational understanding. With every exercise, IAF hasgained valuable experience and gained respect as a highly-professional andmotivated force," the official added.The exercise comes at a timewhen the $10.4 billion project to acquire 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft(MMRCA) for IAF is in the final stages of selection process.Apartfrom Eurofighter, the other five contenders in the hotly-contested race to bagthe lucrative MMRCA project are the F/A-18 `Super Hornet' and F-16 `Falcon'(both US), Gripen (Swedish), Rafale (French) and MiG-35 (Russian).Amajor Indo-UK defence deal has been the `Hawk' AJT (advanced jet trainer)project. As reported earlier, India is going in for another 57 Hawks as a"follow-on" order to the ongoing Rs 8,000 crore AJT project, finalised in March2004 with BAE Systems, under which IAF is already getting 66Hawks.