Indian Air Force (IAF) landed at Mont-de-Marsan Air Base in France to participate in the two-week ‘Garuda’ exercise with the French Air Force starting today.
According to the embassy of France, as part of their Indo-Pacific cooperation, the fortnight-long Garuda exercise, will take place at Mont de Marsan (southwest of France). “It is a tactical Indo-French exercise aimed at enhancing the interoperability level of the French and Indian crews in air defense and ground attack missions,” it adds.
The Garuda exercise is alternately held in France and India, under the framework of bilateral cooperation between the two nations. While the French air force will deploy fighter aircraft including the Rafale, Alpha Jet, Mirage 2000, C135, E3F, C130, and CASA, the IAF contingent has 120 air-warriors and four Su-30 MKI along with an IL-78 Flight Refuelling aircraft, which shall participate during the exercise. And C-17 strategic lift aircraft which will provide the logistic support to the contingent during the induction and de-induction phase.
After taking off for the southwest of France, they were refueled in the Mediterranean by a French C135. And were received on their arrival by the base Commander, Air Base Mont-De-Marsan, Colonel Gaudillere.
As has been reported by Financial Express Online, the ‘Garuda-VI’ exercise, being held at France’s Mont-de-Marsan air base, has been termed as one of the biggest air exercises that is being planned between the two Air Forces.
This is the 6th edition of the exercise which allows the air forces to exercise together and learn best practices each one has to offer. The previous exercise was conducted at Air Force Station Jodhpur in Jun 2014.
This is one of the biggest air exercises that is being planned between the two Air Forces. The IAF Su-30 MKI will be operating in a simulated operational warfighting scenario along with French Air Forces multirole Rafale aircraft.