The Eastern Air Command (EAC) of the Indian Air Force (IAF) started fighter jet operations on Wednesday from six airfields under five states in its area of operations.
The six airfields include Dimapur (Nagaland), Imphal (Manipur), Guwahati (Assam), Kolkata (West Bengal), Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh) and Andal (West Bengal).
The exercise has been launched with SU 30 MKi and Hawk 132 aircrafts.
According to information, the exercise will be conducted in two phases.
The first phase, which started on Wednesday, will continue till October 19.
In the second phase, the exercise will be conducted from October 29 to November 1.
It will be a part of capability building up and operational training of undertaking operations from dispersed locations in case of hostilities.
“The exercise will familiarise the IAF crew with the procedure of flying at these busy airfields and coordinate with civilian counterparts,” said an official press release.
The exercise will help familiarising the civilian functionaries at these airfields in the conduct of military operations, sources added.
As per reports, at Imphal, two aircrafts have been deployed from the 106 squadron while two more are from the 102 squadron at Dimapur.
Three other aircraft have been reportedly deployed from 2 squadron at Kolkata with two from Chabua in Dibrugarh and 5 from Tezpur. At least seven of the aircrafts are SU-30s.
In the afternoon on Wednesday, as part of the drill, an SU-30 aircraft landed at the Kolkata airport from its base in Assam.