PTI, NEW DELHI: The 13-day long mega military exercise by the Indian Air Force achieved more than its stated “objectives”, Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa said today, indicating its readiness to deal with a hostile Pakistan and China almost simultaneously.
Two days after curtains came down on Gagan Shakti — the biggest exercise by IAF in three decades — Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa said over 11,000 sorties were carried out by combat, transport and rotary wing aircraft of the force to test its combat readiness.
“All men and women of the IAF rose to the occasion and achieved things beyond our stated objectives,” the IAF Chief told PTI in an interview.
As part of the massive drill from April 8 to 20, the IAF deployed its entire war waging machinery for the pan-India exercise with fighter jets, equipped with strategic weapons like Brahmos and Harpoon anti ship missiles, carrying out deep penetration strikes to revalidate its strategic reach.
“We achieved relocation and rebalancing of assets from one sector to another in 48 hours,” Dhanoa said. “The overall objective of Gagan Shakti was fully achieved,” he said without elaborating.
Explaining the significance, a senior IAF official said the objective of the rebalancing and relocation was to quickly flatten the enemy in one front and redeploy the assets in another sector within 48 hours — in a possible two-front war scenario.
He said over 1,400 IAF officers and 14,000 personnel were part of the exercise for which preparations started around nine months back.
Dhanoa said the IAF achieved all parameters of serviceability, surge operations, relocation of resources and joint operations with the Army and Navy during the exercise which were crucial aspects of the war fighting machinery.
The combat drill was carried out at a time when China was increasing its assertiveness along the borders with India and while Pakistan has been continuing its skirmishes along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
