IAF special exercise begins: C 130 Hercules makes a short landing on Lucknow-Agra Expressway

Seventeen aircraft, including AN-32, Mirage 2000 and Sukhoi MKI, will participate in the three-hour drill.

IndiaToday.in  | Edited by Kritika Banerjee
New Delhi, October 24, 2017 | UPDATED 10:58 IST
Indian Air Force fighter aircraft will land on Agra-Lucknow Expressway.Indian Air Force fighter aircraft will land on Agra-Lucknow Expressway. Photo for representation: Reuters.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) today kicked off its major touchdown exercise with a C 130 Hercules landing on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway. Seventeen aircraft, including AN-32, Mirage 2000 and Sukhoi MKI, will participate in the three-hour drill.

In a first, the heavy-duty C 130 Hercules, the 35,000-kg transport aircraft, will make an assault landing with Garud commandos. These commandos will be extricated from the same spot when the C 130 will make a landing for the second time.

HERE IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE IAF EXERCISE:
  1. A C-130 transport aircraft with Special Forces (Garud) commandos, and frontline fighters from Indian Air Force's (IAF) inventory will be a part of the exercise to use highways as landing strips.
  2. In addition to displaying operational capability, the IAF will show its prowess in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), a methodology to be used in case of any natural disaster or event that will enable the pilots to touch down to provide relief and assistance.
  3. A total of 17 aircraft will practice the difficult landing today which will include two C 130 Hercules, Jaguar, Mirage 2000 and Sukhoi 30MKI fighter jets.
  4. Vice Chief of Indian Air Force Air Marshal S B Deo on Monday said that landing of fighter aircraft on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway is an "important operational achievement".
  5. Air Marshal Deo said that highways can be "very important during wartime when the runway is denied for some reason".
  6. The exercise begins with the short landing of C 130 Hercules, which will drop the Garud commandos. The commandos will take position on either side of the airstrip to cordon it off for fighter operations.
  7. This will be followed by three Jaguar Deep penetration strike aircraft, two formations of three aircraft each of Mirages and two formations of three aircraft each of Sukhoi-30.
  8. All fighter aircraft will follow the touch-and-go manoeuvre following which the C 130 Hercules will return for another short landing to extricate the Garud commandos.