The aim of the exercise was to exchange experiences about procedures and tactics. And to improve interoperability between the aircraft of the 2 nations; by flying mixed missions and by doing mixed Air-to-Air-Refueling (AAR) by the French C-135F and the Indian IL-78.

After the first active day of familiarization flying, the next 7 flying days started with assignments increasing in difficulty. Starting from simple, visible dogfights and going to Beyond-Visual-Range (BVR) fights. Also the protection of slow aircraft (a Tucano) and a fast AWACS was exercised. The Indian delegation flew some 75 missions with the SU-30, while the French air force flew some 80 missions with various Mirage 2000. The French Mirage 2000’s came from Orange, Dijon and Istres

The numbers of the participating Indian aircraft were: SU30: SB010, SB013, B014, SB016, SB017, SB018 IL78MK1: RK3451

Publications: AIREVIEW 2005-10 has a GARUDA 2 item
Aviation News 2005-08 has a GARUDA 2 SU-30 photo

Acknowledgments: Thanks to SIRPA.AIR (Paris), Istres Public Affairs and Patrick Bigel for their support.