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Air Force To Exercise In Eastern Sector To Test Capabilities On Chinese Front

The Indian Air Force has said that the command-level exercise in the eastern sector is a routine exercise that has been planned in advance and there is no connection to the recent clash in Arunachal Pradesh

The Indian Air Force (IAF) announced on Tuesday that it will hold a training exercise in the country's eastern sector on 15 and 16 December.

According to sources, the eastern command is planning a command level exercise to test the IAF's capabilities on the China front. The exercise will include fighter jets, transport aircraft, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

The exercise is expected to activate air bases in Assam's Tezpur, Chhabua, Jorhat and West Bengal's Hashimara. The Rafale fighter jets are based at Hasimara air base.

The development comes a day after the Indian Army said troops from two sides clashed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Tawang sector on 9 December and the face-off led to minor injuries to a few personnel from both sides.

The Indian Air Force, on the other hand, has said that the command-level exercise in the eastern sector is a routine exercise that has been planned in advance. There is no connection to the recent clash in Arunachal Pradesh.

The clash in Tawan, Arunachal Pradesh, was the first major clash between Indian and Chinese armies since August 2020, near Rinchen La in eastern Ladakh.

The clash near Yangtse along the LAC in the sensitive sector occurred last Friday, amid the two sides' 30-month border standoff in eastern Ladakh.

Tawang Face-off

On 9 December, PLA troops made contact with the LAC in Tawang Sector, which was fiercely contested by Indian troops. According to a statement issued by the Army, this clash resulted in minor injuries to a few personnel from both sides.

Both parties immediately left the area. As a result of the incident, the area's own (Indian) commander convened a flag meeting with his counterpart to discuss the situation by structured mechanisms to restore peace and tranquillity, it said. 

Though the Army did not specify the number of troops involved in the clash, sources said that there were over 200 People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers with spiked clubs and sticks and injuries on the Chinese side could be more severe.


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indian air force air exercise eastern front

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