RAF jets 'beaten' by Indian pilots flying Russian-designed planes
Indian Air Force (IAF) says Indian pilots using Russian-designed fighter jets have humiliated their British counterparts flying the Typhoon fighters during a two-week exercise.
IAF officials claim the Indian pilots have come away from the exercise with a humiliating 12-0 victory against their UK opponents from the Royal Air Force (RAF), The Independent reported on Friday.
The Indian Air Force brought four of its fleet of Russian-designed SU-30MKI Flanker fighter aircraft to face off UK's Typhoon FGR4 fighters in a joint training exercise code-named Operation Indradhanush.
The two-week exercise was held in Lincolnshire, a historical county in the east of England.
"In some of the most intense international air combat exercises ever featuring the Indian Air Force, IAF pilots flying Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighters had a resounding 12-0 score line in their favor against Royal Air Force Typhoon jets in Within Visual Range (WVR) dogfight operations,” Group Captain Ashu Srivastav was quoted as saying by an Indian television network.
"In subsequent Large Force Exercises (LFE), which featured combined Eurofighter Typhoon and Su-30 formations, the IAF jets were somewhat less successful but consistently held an edge over the Typhoons," NDTV reported him as saying.
"In all dog fighting exercises, IAF Sukhois were able to turn sharply into the extremely agile Typhoons using their thrust-vectored engines to keep the RAF jets locked in their sights,” he was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, an RAF source rejected the Indian claims and said they were clearly designed for the “domestic audience”.
“There must have been some clouded recollection on the flights back to India, as the headlines of the Indian press bear no relation to the results of the tactical scenarios completed on the exercise in any shape or form,” The Independent quoted him as saying.
India has nearly 200 Russian-made Sukhoi jets in service, each costing £30million. RAF has taken delivery of 129 of the twin-engine Typhoon planes at a cost of £87m each.
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