A four-day joint exercise between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) concluded recently at Air Force Station, Jamnagar. The exercise, named “Ex Eastern Bridge - 2011” marks the second of the series, the first was held in October 2009 wherein six IAF Jaguars had operated at RAFO Thumrait, Oman. It is the first time that the RAFO Jaguars have participated in a joint exercise held in India.

The RAFO contingent comprised of six Jaguar aircraft and 115 personnel. RAFO Jaguars had ferried in directly from Thumrait and landed at Jamnagar. Two years back when the IAF contingent visited Oman, their Omani counterparts had expressed keen interest and desire to fly over Indian terrain which has a vast variation quite unlike the Omani flatbed desert. After having flown from Air Force Station in Jamnagar, they got to realise the challenges the IAF routinely encounters flying over the varying Indian landscape with deserts to the North and dense vegetation and hills towards South Gujarat.

The exercise involved a variety of flying missions from each other’s best practices in terms of operational, maintenance and administrative procedures. The exercise gave vast exposure to the aircrew of RAFO and IAF, towards missions involving long duration sorties with in flight refuelling, large force strike packages, air to ground bombing and maritime strike roles routinely performed by the IAF both independently and in mixed operations.