F-16 Falcons take fight out of Left
KALAIKUNDA, Nov. 7. â As the Indo-US joint air exercises got underway at Kalaikunda air base from 8 a.m. today, the CPI-M leadership, which had summoned its party faithful to surround the air base, stood dismayed to find their âdisciplinedâ cadre more keen on gazing at the US F-16s and the Indian MiGs soaring skyward than shouting slogans in protest.
Amid the deafening roar of warplanes taking off and landing, the CPI-Mâs state committee member, Mr Dipak Sarkar, was heard repeatedly appealing to party loyalists to come to the rally site, a short distance away from the air station. But they clamoured around the fence to mark the boundary of the air base for vantage positions to view the flying fighter planes.
Mr Sarkarâs repeated exhortations to stop gawking at the âUS warplanes and instead spit hatred against them for killing millions of innocent Iraqisâ went largely unheeded. The protest rally turned out to be a flop show as only 30,000 Left supporters assembled against the 150,000 that the Left had promised to vaunt.
The joint air exercises continued till the evening. A senior IAF officer said that for the first time, a squadron of F-16 aircraft flew from Indian soil.
To prevent any untoward incident, a massive security arrangement was made outside the base. The Air-Forceâs Garud Force, the Armyâs Gorkha regiment and CISF men were posted along the fence inside the air station while 800 personnel from the state police force stood guard outside.
An IAF officer said: âThe objective of the exercises is to familiarise the personnel of the two air forces of the two countries with each otherâs operational procedure, technical practices and administrative methods.ââ
He said 25 fighters, including an entire US Air Force squadron of F-16s, took part in the exercises. The IAFâs Sukhoi-30, Mirage-2000, MiG-27 and Bisons, a niftier version of MiG-21s, participated.
The USAF contingent was led by Colonel Cobat Nelson while Air Commodore Atul Saikia led the IAF contingent.
The officer said the exercise passed off without any problems and to the satisfaction of the authorities. The fighters were flying in formation and during the joint air exercise, large formation tactics were adopted for an aerial target. While defence forces tried to hit the target by employing different manoeuvres, opposite forces tried to destroy with simulators.