US-Indian Wargames Wake-up Call, says USAF

[Guest guest]

UPDATED

Results of exercise with IAF wake-up call: US gen

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

US-Indian Wargames Wake-up Call says USAF

Posted online: Friday, June 25, 2004 at 0036 hours IST

WASHINGTON, JUNE 24: The US Air Force got a ``wake-up call'' in air-

to-air training exercises with India earlier this year that showed

the United States can no longer take air superiority for granted in

a conflict, a top US general has said.

 

A study of the ``Cope India'' air exercise, conducted by the US and

Indian air forces in Gwalior last February, is secret, said General

Hal Hornburg, head of the USAF's Air Combat Command.

 

``But we have to learn a lot of things from that,'' he told defence

reporters here. ``We have to learn if we want air superiority it

doesn't come cheap and it's not automatic.''

 

The Russian-made Su-30s are reported to have bested the F-15s in a

majority of their engagements, much to the surprise of the

organisers. It was the first time the two top-of-the-line US and

Russian-made fighters have flown against each other in an exercise,

an Air Force spokeswoman said.

 

It pitted F-15Cs from the USAF's 3rd Wing out of Elmendorf Air Force

Base in Alaska against a variety of Indian fighters, not just the Su-

30s.

 

Although the US fighters flew with certain restrictions that

handicapped their effectiveness, the performance of the Indian

fighters exceeded expectations.

 

``In general, we may have learned some things that suggest we may

not be as far ahead of the rest of the world as we once thought we

were,'' Hornburg said. The trade journal Aviation Week and Space

Technology reported last month that the exercises showed the Su-30s

had a clear advantage over the F-15C in a long-range fight.

 

The US and Indian aircraft were seeing each other at the same time

with their radars but the Su-30 pilots were able to simulate-fire

their Russian-made AA-10 ``fire-and-forget'' Alamo missiles first,

the weekly said.

 

The exercise appears to hold lessons for the USAF in East Asia,

where China is acquiring Su-27 and Su-30 fighters and AA-12 air-to-

air missiles. —(PTI)

--- End forwarded message ---