India's own Red Flag - the Tarang Shakti exercise
After being a frequent participant in various multinational exercises such as the US' Red Flag & Australia's Pitch Black, India is now hosting its first ever multinational exercise for aerial warfare - the Tarang Shakti.
11 countries (including India) are participating in the exercise with the following aircraft:
F/A-18: Australia
F16s: Greece, UAE & USA
Typhoons: Germany, Spain, UK
A10: USA
Rafale: France, India
C130: Bangladesh (remains to be seen with recent events), Singapore, India.
A400M: Germany (not in list but landed in Sulur for first phase)
Refuellers: UK (not in list but landed in Sulur for first phase), USA, India
AWACS: UAE, India
Other Indian Aircraft: Tejas, Su-30 MKI, Mirage 2000, Jaguar, Mig 29, Prachand, Rudra.
The exercise consists of two phases:
The first phase at Sulur with Germany, France, Spain and UK. This is part of a Pacific Skies 2024 mega deployment to the Indo-Pacific (with the UK joining them in India) consisting of eight German Eurofighters, four Spanish Eurofighters, four French Rafale fighters, 12 German Tornado strike aircraft, nine A400M transports (four German, three French, two Spanish), one Spanish A330 transport, and four German H145M helicopters., to showcase the long-range capabilities of these Air Forces of Middle Power European countries through a round the world trip, taking part in various multilateral exercises (route below):
More info on this deployment
in this TWZ article.
This phase is currently taking place (photos below):
The second phase will take place in Jodhpur with Australia, Bangladesh, UAE, Singapore, USA, Greece.
Overall 51 countries were invited, some of whom will still attend as observers. Russia turned down the invitation, as expected while Israel was also invited but not included in the list (maybe for political reasons). Canada & Turkey are notable exceptions though the former was invited to and participated in a Milan multi-lateral naval exercise earlier this year. Representation from Asia & Africa seem abysmal (Latin America can be excused given the distance), but the attendee list should expand in the coming years like how the Aussies expanded theirs.
It is quite interesting to see the Tejas flying with Eurofighters & Rafales, but it really needs canards (maybe for MK-2
![Wink](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/wink.png)
). Also, it seems a bit strange to see a Luftwaffe Eurofighter with a balkenkreuze flying over the distinct Tamil Nadu landscape!
In the photo below, the Tejas is apparently flown by the Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh VCAS of the IAF while the Eurofighter is flow by the Cmdr Lt Gen Ingo Gerhartz of the Luftwaffe.
![Tarang Shakti | India's first ever multinational exercise for aerial warfare-gut69odbiaanpzq.jpeg](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/commercial-vehicles/2637852d1722965793t-tarang-shakti-indias-first-ever-multinational-exercise-aerial-warfare-gut69odbiaanpzq.jpeg)