IAF to unleash its full strength in exercise VayuShakti -2010 at Pokhran on Feb 28

Even as IAF gears up to unleash a massive high-voltage firepower exercise Vayu Shakti-2010 at Pokhran on February 28 to showcase its `shock and awe' capabilities, plans have also been set in motion to hold the first-ever air combat exercise with China.

"We hope to hold an exercise with China around 2012. The Army has already taken a lead in this. The planning has already commenced, but political clearances, suitable dates etc take some time to come,'' said IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik on Monday.

The Army, on its part, is slated to hold the third edition of its `hand-in-hand' (HiH) exercise with the People's Liberation Army in 2011. The first one was held at Kunming in China in December 2007, while the second one was conducted at the Belgaum commando school in Karnataka in December 2008.

Though largely symbolic in nature, with just over 100 soldiers participating from each side, the HiH drills are seen to be an important CBM between the world's largest and third largest armies which fought a bloody war in 1962.

ACM Naik said Vayu Shakti was meant to showcase IAF's operational capabilities by day, dusk and night. "IAF is a key element of national power... It remains combat ready to meet any challenge. We are fast emerging as a strategic aerospace power,'' he said.

To be witnessed by President Pratibha Patil, defence minister A K Antony, top military brass and foreign observers, the massive exercise will have a total of 105 aircraft, including the lethal Sukhoi-30MKI fighters pounding simulated targets in the Rajasthan deserts to demonstrate IAF's precision-strike capabilities.

Asked why Vayu Shakti was being held after a gap of five years, Naik said IAF earlier used to hold the exercise annually but "we ended up in the phase of `paisa illey' (no money)''. Now, with the fund crunch easing a little, IAF has decided to participate in a major international exercise and hold Vayu Shakti once every two years.

The IAF chief said India's neighbours, including Pakistan, had been suitably informed about the exercise because "we should not alarm people unnecessarily since it's a planned exercise''.