Exercise Cobra Warrior 22

Indian Air Force will participate in a multi-nation air exercise named ‘Exercise Cobra Warrior 22’ at Waddington, in the United Kingdom from March 06 to 27, 2022.

Key-points

• The Cobra Warrior Exercise is one of the largest annual Royal Air Force exercises and aims to train both pilots and other air specialists in planning and executing complex airborne missions.
• India will be participating in the exercise for the first time. 
  • Other countries participating are the United Kingdom, Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Bulgaria.
• IAF Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas will participate in the exercise along with fighter aircraft of the UK and other leading Air Forces. 
  • Five Tejas aircraft will fly to the United Kingdom. 
  • IAF C-17 aircraft will provide the necessary transport support for induction and de-induction.
  • The Indian Tejas jets will be stationed at the RAF Waddington air base.
• The exercise will involve air-to-air operations such as aircraft interceptions and mock dogfights and simulated ground attacks.
• This will be the first-ever outing of LCA-Tejas in the International air exercise.

Objective 

• The Cobra Warrior exercise is aimed at providing operational exposure and sharing best practices amongst the participating Air Forces.
• It will help enhance combat capability and forge bonds of friendship between the participating Air Forces. 
• The exercise will serve as a platform for LCA Tejas to demonstrate its manoeuvrability and operational capability.

About Light Combat Aircraft Tejas

• LCA Tejas is a single-engine multirole light combat aircraft.
• The Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme was started by the Government of India in 1984 when they established the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) to manage the LCA programme.
• LCA Tejas was designed and developed by India’s HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited).
• It replaced the ageing Mig 21 fighter planes.
• It is the second supersonic fighter jet that was developed by HAL (the first one being HAL HF-24 Marut).
• It is the lightest and smallest multi-role supersonic fighter aircraft in its class.
• It is designed to carry a range of air-to-air, air-to-surface, precision-guided, and standoff weaponry.