India-US air force exercise begins in Agra

India and the United States' Air Forces begin a five-day exercise at India's Taj Mahal base demonstrating evidence of growing ties between the two militaries.

The exercise being conducted in Agra and code-named COPE-India-09', involves seven Indian planes and five US transport planes. The practice involves various techniques including airdrops and joint land to air missions.

The two countries planes taking part in the exercise are three C-130H Hercules, one C-17 Globemaster III, and one C-130J aircraft while the IAF (Indian Air Force) will field one IL-76 Gajraj, four AN-32 Sutlej, two MI-17 Pratap, and one Chetak Alouette III aircraft.

"The IAF Garuds (elite units) will train along with the US Air Force Special Operations force to validate concepts and interoperability for executing special operations in a simulated hostile environment," said Air Commodore Shouvik Roy, who is in overall charge of the Cope India exercise that concludes on Oct 24.

"The Garuds would be exposed to new fields such as para-rescue and combat search and rescue operations. This would help the Garuds to shape their future operational philosophy and training format and upgrade their equipment profile," he added.