00:01and joining me now on this special edition of battle cry amongst the finest voices on military
00:06aviation air marshal anil chopra a veteran mirage 2000 fighter pilot and strategic advisor society
00:13of indian defense manufacturers air marshal sanjeev kapoor a geopolitical and defense expert
00:19and of course my colleague sandeep unnithan again a keen aviation enthusiast air marshal chopra
00:25the indian air force fighters they've flown both against and alongside u.s air force including
00:32the f-35s and similar drills overseas how is tarang shakti different will we learn more about
00:40stealth fighter operations in our environment
00:44uh god of always a pleasure to be with you on battle cry and i must mention that yes we
00:49have
00:49flown against the f-35s whether it was an exercise pitch black in australia or the red flag in the
00:56usa and we have seen the f-35 a fly here in their show in aero india last year but
01:05it's the first
01:05time any fifth generation aircraft of any class is going to take part in an exercise organized by
01:12indian air force on indian soil so this is uh an area which everybody's looking forward to of course
01:18they'll be the f-16s uh the rafars of the french air force and uae so you have a large
01:24number of
01:25other aircraft uh including the mtpa and the other contenders who are perhaps going to buy for our mta
01:33projects etc but the main thing is that uh we are going to see how we're going to engage a
01:39fifth
01:39generation aircraft we know that in another across the northern border we have the chinese already
01:45having over 400 fifth generation aircraft now whether this aircraft will be using the f-35a
01:52will be using some kind of bloomberg's lens to increase the radar cross section so that we do not
01:57have the real properties of the stealth or how much of the exercises we will be having uh total stealth
02:04available on the f-35 for particular exercises but this exercise are in shakti too there's going to see
02:10a large force engagement there will be one-to-one combats there will be uh day and night exercise
02:17it's a triennial exercise last one held two years back though it had to be done a year earlier than
02:23that and this is an exercise with the young pilots new crew of all the countries are looking forward some
02:30of these people have already met them uh in uh here when they were transiting through delhi some of
02:35them and i i find a great amount of excitement great amount of learning for all these people also
02:41for the administrative staff to manage a big exercise like this in jodhpur and for the technical people
02:47to maintain of course we have great experience in aero india where maintaining a large number of
02:51aeroplanes has been possible though this is very exciting no doubt but air marshal kapoor what do we gain
02:57with the f-35s part of tactical mission flying off an indian air base uh do we learn more about
03:03where we
03:04stand uh vis-a-vis of fifth generation u.s stealth fighter see uh good evening to you gaurav and
03:12to
03:12the fellow panelists and uh to a master chokra it's always a pleasure to be on the show the fifth
03:18generation like he just mentioned are flying for the first time it is for the first time the indian
03:26radars beat the ground radars beat the airborne radars meet our ecosystem our sensor shooters
03:33our fourth to four and a half generation fighters would be flying alongside a fifth generation so
03:39how does the fifth generation appear in a large force engagement uh you know formation how does it
03:47operate while operating these things would be seen firsthand by our operators of course uh they would
03:53not transmit the original frequencies or they uh they would be using uh the radars which are actually not
04:00used in combat but not besides you you remember i did a program a couple of times with you when
04:07an f-35
04:07was struck in trivandrum yes the kind of guarding that was required to be done the pilot sat there at
04:15all times each and every part of f-35 is a sensor including the surface so when our people when
04:25we are
04:25developing our own amcar when our own engineers pilots and technicians see this aircraft close
04:32end you know they would understand what is it all about see in airwinder a handful of people get an
04:39access i don't think so they allow anybody to be in the cockpit leave aside going near true but here
04:44it is
04:45operating right from your base so americans have in my appreciation a strategy where they want to promote
04:52this aircraft and before we have taken a final decision so that's why they sent it for an exercise
04:57also uh like they have an aggressive squad in u.s when we have seen you know f-16s fighting
05:05against
05:06another f-16 the turkish f-16 engaged in an actual combat with greek f-16s so the the aggressive
05:14force in
05:15u.s has a f-16 now okay maybe a situation wherein a fifth generation both like uh and uh
05:24marshal chopra
05:25said uh we'll be having in no time say by next year our western adversary and northern adversary
05:31may have a fifth generation fighter no but that's very interesting that you mentioned that it may go
05:35it will be going up against maybe a sue 30 mki or a mirage 2000 or an lca uh and
05:41how are we comparing
05:43with our adversaries getting the fgfa sandeep can we look at these exercises as capability demonstration
05:49uh by the u.s when it comes to the f-35s or the french when it comes to rafals
05:55is there a sales pitch
05:56in this because india is now focusing on own amca while we go in for additional rafals
06:04but god if there's no doubt about it this is one of the most concerted u.s pushes to get
06:09india
06:10interested in the f-35 fifth generation stealth aircraft now the offer was made by uh president
06:16donald trump to prime minister modi at the white house in february of 2025 uh but a lot of water
06:23has
06:24flown down the ganges and the bottomac since then uh india u.s ties in october 2026 are not what
06:31they
06:31were that's a very interesting point that you bring given the way warfare is changing you need to have
06:37your own manufacturing bases the wars are no longer short sharp and sweet uh they could go on for
06:44years and years as we're seeing in most of the battle theaters where you need your own fighter
06:48planes you need your own fighter jet engines you need your own manufacturing capabilities perhaps
06:53that's a debate for another time i want to thank air marshal chopra air marshal kapoor
06:57and sandeep unethan for joining me here on this part of battle cry where we talk about tarang shakti
07:03and what india stands to gain from carrying out an exercise with the u.s fifth generation fighter jet
07:10and other air forces and their weapons of war many thanks for watching
