Forum: Air Power

Question: Does the F-16s ECM pod jam enemy aircraft radars?

The excercise starts in November right? And are there any restrictions for either Air Force in terms of tactics and weaponry this time?

You probably wont' get any detailed explanations of ECM or ESM capability on this forum, even though some of the experts are here. Public consumption info only are the rules here.

Tuesday Sept. 6, 2005, WASHINGTON: The United States is deploying its F-16 fighter jets for large scale air exercises with India to be held at the Kalaikunda Air Base outside Kolkata in November this year.

Twelve F-16 CJs and an E-3 AWACS from the Misawa and Kadena Air Base on Okinawa in Japan will be flying down for the ten-day Cope India exercises starting November 7, according to defence sources.

It is the first time the US is deploying F-16 fighter jets for exercises in India. Washington held back its F-16s and sent six F-15 Eagles from the Elmendorf Air Base in Alaska during the last exercises in Gwalior in February 2004, partly due to concerns over reactions from Pakistan, whose air force inventory centers around the F-16s.

This time the US wants to get it right. Besides, both sides appear to have decided that Pakistan is relatively marginal to their military relationship, which is pegged to broader and deeper concerns.

In fact, when the Indian Air Chief announced in Srinagar last month that US and India were holding air exercises, there was hysterical reaction from Pakistan, which assumed that the exercises were being held in Kashmir (because it was announced there). Washington subsequently clarified that the exercises were at the Kaliaikunda Air Base outside Kolkata, calming Islamabad’s frenzy.

Meanwhile, ahead of November’s Cope India exercises, six IAF personnel visited Misawa and Kadena last month for familiarization courses that included flying the F-16s. At the same time, two American airmen went to India with a similar purpose and they flew India’s topline SU-30s.

Apart from their fighter jets and equipment, the US is also sending nearly 250 military personnel from the Japan-based 35th Fighter Wing and 961st Airborne Warning and Control Systems in exercises that officials say are becoming bigger and more potent with every passing year. Last year, around 200 Indian airmen had flown to Alaska for exercises there.