Air Force Pauses Flying Exercise, Rafales To Secure Delhi Airspace For G20

The Indian Air Force has taken an operational pause in the ongoing Exercise Trishul going on in the northern sector as fighter aircraft will not be flying from September 7-10.

IAF officials made it clear that only the flying operations of the aircraft involved in Ex Trishul would be paused and other routine flying may continue.

In this period, the Indian Air Force would start operating its PHALCON AWACS aircraft to keep an eye on the air space across the country to protect the air space over the national capital region in view of the G-20 summit, defence sources said.

The Indian Air Force is also deploying its Rafale and other fighter jets at the advanced air bases to protect Delhi skies for the summit.

The surface-to-air missile systems have also been moved to places around Delhi for taking out enemy aircraft or rogue drones.

Indian Air Force has been carrying out a major training exercise codenamed Trishul in the northern sector along the borders with both China and Pakistan since September 4.

All major fleets of fighter aircraft including the Rafale, Mirage 2000 and the Su-30MKIs are participating in the drills along with heavy-lift transport aircraft and choppers including the Chinooks and Apache. Garud Special Forces are also part of the drills where all elements of air power are being exercised.

Exercise has been underway from September 4 and will culminate on September 14 in the northern sector including Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu Kashmir and Punjab.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)