India to hold joint Air Force Exercise with Japan in Jan
Indian contingent to include four Su-30 MKI, two C-17 and one IL-78 aircraft; Japan will have four F-2 and four F-15 aircraft
India and Japan will conduct a joint Air Exercise, “Veer Guardian-2023”, involving the Indian Air Force and Japan Air Self Defence Force (JASDF) at Hyakuri Air Base, Japan from 12-26 January 2023.
The Indian contingent will include four Su-30 MKI, two C-17 and one IL-78 aircraft, while the JASDF will participate with four F-2 and four F-15 aircraft. Importantly, it will include joint fighter jet drills.
The inaugural exercise will have various aerial combat drills, along with multi-domain air combat missions in a complex environment and will exchange best practices.
The Indian government said the aim is to promote Air Defence cooperation between the countries. However, growing cooperation between the two is to keep a hostile China in check and also to prevent China from raising its aggression towards Taiwan and other countries.
Significantly, most of China’s population and cities are concentrated on its eastern side, near Japan and South Korea – the Indian Navy had a joint exercise with the South Korean Navy in November 2022.
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