Top fighter jets and a couple of transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) will conduct a major touchdown exercise on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway on Tuesday morning.
The show will have 20 planes including the deep penetration strike aircraft Jaguar, multi-role fighter Mirage 2000, IAF’s most potent air superiority fighter SU-30MKI, transport aircraft AN-32 and C-130J Super Hercules.
This is for the “first time” that transport aircraft (AN-32) will “land and then take off” from this highway, an official said.
According to a senior IAF officer involved in planning and executing the October 24 exercise, the first plane to land on the expressway will be a C-130J Super Hercules with a team of the elite Garuds commados. The C-130J Super Hercules landing will showcase the ability of Garuds to carry out an assault behind the enemy lines.
After the Garuds land, a series of IAF fighters will touch and take off from the expressway. The first to do so will be three Jaguars, India’s only tactical nuclear bomb carrying and ground attack aircraft, followed by six Mirage 2000 in groups of three, and then six SU-30 MKIs. An AN-32 transport plane is also likely to be part of the touch and rake-off show. The show will end with the C-130 Super Hercules returning to extricate the Garud commandos.
According to PRO, Defence (Central Command), Gargi Malik Sinha, the Air Force will conduct the aircraft touchdown exercise on the Agra Expressway near Bangarmau in Unnao district.
“It is for the first time that any transport aircraft will land and then take off (on the highway). The AN-32 are meant for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. The aircraft can bring a large amount of relief material and can also help in evacuating people,” Sinha said.
Twenty aircraft including AN-32 transport and fighter planes like Mirage 2000, Jaguar, Sukhoi 30 MKI will take part in the exercise, she said.
“Two AN-32 planes will participate in the October 24 Expressway touchdown,” she said.
To ensure a smooth conduct of the exercise, traffic restrictions are already in place for the public from Monday. The highway will be closed for commuters till 2 PM on Tuesday.
The landing stretch of the expressway is some 65 kilometres from Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow and to prepare the area for the mega show, vehicles have been barred from plying on the strip of the expressway.
IAF had performed the first such touchdown and take off in May 2015 when a Mirage 2000 fighter had performed the feat on the Yamuna Expressway near Delhi. Later in November 2016, IAF Su-30MKIs and Mirage 2000s had landed and taken off from the Agra-Lucknow Expressway.
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