Gagan Shakti 2018 - India's Biggest Military Excercise

• With an eye on the two-front threat posed by China and Pakistan, the Indian Air Force(IAF) is going to conduct its biggest ever combat excercise Gagan Shakti 2018 along Pakistan and China border during 8 April to 22 April,2018.

• Purpose : Gagan Shakti is the biggest military excercise in decades undertaken by India to showcase its own dominance over the entire extended area of the Indian Ocean Region(IOR).

• Important facts about Gagan Shakti 2018 :

1. The IAF has mobilised more than 1,100 combat, transport and rotary wing (helicopter) aircraft in order to practice the real time scenario.
2. The exccercise is covering from the height of 20,000 ft to the extreme hot areas of deserts and also the maritime scenario.
3. The IAF is conducting all terrain operations - desert, high altitude, maririme scenarios and special operations - in the real time.
4. In this day and night excercise, IAF will perform offencive and deffencive excercises. 
5. It is the joint operation with Indian Army.In order to maintain optimum turn around, keeping the aircraft combat ready; Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Bhrat Electronics Limited (BEL) will be placing their technicians at the maintanance bases.
6. The excercise is being carried out in two phases,                                                                                     
        First phase of the excercise begin on April 10, in which focus is on the western border of Pakistan (near Pokhran firing range, Jaisalmer).
        In the second phase, the combat mission will shift to the eastern corridor - near China border in the north-eastern states.
7. In the excercise, Air force will create enemy airforce and own airforce - Red Force, Blue Force and White Force.
8. In this excercise, Sukhoi Su-30MKI, MIG-21, MIG-29, MIG-27, Jaguar and Mirag, Large transport combat C-17 Globe Master,HAL Tejas,attack helicopters MI-35, MI-17V, LAH Dhruv are the main focus.
9. For the first time, the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas are taking part in the excercise.
10. The accuracy and outcome of the mission highlight IAF's multispectral capabilities and its efficiency in providing timley support to ground forces.

• Deep in the Topic :

• About Indian Air Force :    

• Founded : 8 october, 1932 (Air Force Day)
• Motto : नभः स्पृशं दीप्तम्
• Headquarter : New Delhi
• Air Commands : Western : New Delhi, Eastern : Shilong(Meghalaya), Southern : Thiruvananthapuram(Kerala), South-Western : Gandhinagar(Gujarat), Central : Allahabad(Uttar Pradesh)
• Chief of the Air staff : Air chief Marshal Birendersingh Dhanoa

• Strength of IAF :

• MIG-27 : Single engine, single seater tractical strike fighter aircraft of Russian origin having a maximum speed of 1,700 km per hour (Mach 1.6).

• MIG-29 : Twin engine, single seater air superiority fighter aircraft of Russian origin having a maximum speed of 2,445 km per hour (Mach 2.3)

• Jaguar : Twin engine, single seater fighter bomber jet aircraft of British\French origin having maximum speed of 1,700 km per hour(Mach 1.6)

• Sukhoi Su-30MKI : The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is a multirole combat fighter aircraft jointly developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau (Russia) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the IAF.It can reach to the maximum speed of 2,100 km per hour(Mach 2.0).In 2017, IAF successfully testfired india's fastest cruise missile Brahmos with Su-30.

• Tejas :  The Tejas single seat, single engine, light weight, high agility supersonic fighter aircraft has entered in to service with IAF in July, 2016.It is the first indegenous Light Combat Aircraft(LCA) manufactured by Hindustan Aeronoutics Limited(HAL).Maximum speed of Tejas is 2,205 km per hour (Mach 1.7).It uses stealth technology, that can not be captured by RADAR.

• HAL Dhruv : The Indigenously designed and developed Advanced Light Helicopter (LCH) is a twin engine, multi role ( use for both military opertations and civil operations), multi mission helcopter manufactured by HAL.

• HAL Rudra : Rudra is weaponised version of Advanced Light Helicopter(Dhruv) manufactured by HAL.It is a twin engine Helicopter.It is design to perform cost effective operations due to better fual efficiency and low maintanance cost.

• AN-32 : It is a twin engine turboprop,medium tactical transport aircraft of a Russian origin with a crew of five and has capacity to carry 39 paratroopers.

       Jai Hind !!!


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