Ex-Vayu Shakti 2024: IAF displays firepower with Rafale, LCH Prachand among 120 aircraft

Pokhran: The desert sky lit up on Saturday as the Indian Air Force fired some of its most potent weapons, including the beyond visual range missile MICA from a Rafale jet and Hellfire missiles from an Apache gunship, displaying the force's lethality and the ability to make precision strikes.

The mega exercise Vayu Shakti 2024 was a full spectrum fire power demonstration in a near realistic scenario, in which 50 tonnes of ordnance was fired over a two sq km area. 

Over 120 aircraft, including 77 fighters, took part in the day-dusk-night operation in front of Chief of the Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan and other officials.

“The exercise shows how a task can be accomplished in a coordinated manner. Military power is the ultimate to achieve our national objectives,” Air Marshal A P Singh, Vice Chief of the IAF had stated earlier this month in a pre-event press conference in Delhi.

Being held at an IAF range 200 km from Pakistan border, the exercise not only showcased the lethality and precision of the weapons, but also the force's ability to operate in a networked environment using the air and surface based weapons and special forces.

Front line fighter jets like Rafale, LCA Tejas, Su-30MKI, MiG29 and Jaguars rolled in and fired a volley of missiles and rockets destroying simulated enemy targets.

IAF Chinook helicopters airlifted the Indian Army's M-777 ultra-light howitzers in an underslung mode, enabling quick destruction of simulated enemy targets on ground.

Other rotary wing aircraft like the ALH, Mi-17 and Apache also fired rockets and missiles successfully eliminating enemy targets. 

As the sun set on the horizon, IAF Garud commandos, inserted by Mi-17 helicopters, carried out an urban intervention showcasing how quickly they can enter in a terrorist hide out and eliminate the enemy. 

Night events displayed for the first time the capabilities of indigenous Light Combat Helicopter Prachand as it neutralised the designated target with rockets. 

This was followed by a Jaguar and Su-30 MKI dropping heavy calibre weapons at night, showcasing the IAF’s strategic bombing capability.

Combat support operations by transport aircraft included delivery of containers by a C-17 heavy-lift aircraft and an assault landing by a C-130J carrying special forces.

Happening first time since 2019, Ex Vayu Shakti is the first of the three major exercise that the IAF will undertake this year; the other two being Ex Gagan Shakti in April and Ex Tarang Shakti by the middle of this year.