IAF To Take Part In Multinational Exercise Desert Flag With France In UAE
IAF To Take Part In Multinational Exercise Desert Flag With France In UAE Amid growing ties between India and the Arab world, six Indian Air Force (IAF) Su-30-MKI fighters will take off for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Wednesday to participate in the multinational exercise “Desert Flag”.
The exercise comes soon after the Indian Rafale jets were provided mid-air refueling support by the Emirate’s Air Force tankers while they were coming to India from France. “Six IAF Su-30-MKI fighters will take off for UAE on March 3 to participate in multinational exercise Desert Flag to be held there for three weeks,” IAF officials told ANI.
“10 countries including the US, France, and Saudi Arabia are scheduled to take part in the exercise. IAF”s two C-17s will join the Indian team for the exercise to help them induct and deduct from there,” IAF officials added. The IAF had recently carried out an exercise codenamed “Desert Knight (As part of the first edition of the exercise Desert Knight-21, four French Rafale fighters landed in Jodhpur after flying directly for around four hours from the Djibouti airbase using their A-330 multirole tanker transport aircraft which also landed here.) 2021” with France over Jodhpur involving their and own Rafale fighter jets. The ties between India and the Arab world including the UAE are on a growth trajectory as recently Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane had visited Saudi Arabia and the UAE recently to strengthen military to military ties.
