Full Dress Rehearsal of IAF's Vayushakti 2019 exercise concludes in Pokhran

POKHRAN: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Thursday carried out a Full Dress Rehearsal (FDR) of its Vayushakti 2019 fire power demonstration exercise in Rajasthan's Pokhran firing range close to the Indo-Pakistan border.

The IAF's event to showcase its all-weather day-dusk-night operational capability will be on full display on Saturday. The FDR was conducted on in the presence of Air Marshal Anil Khosla, Vice Chief of the Air Staff.

During the FDR, which lasted for two hours, the IAF engaged numerous simulated enemy targets with various types of air-to-ground weaponry including guided and unguided bombs, rockets and guns.

Air-to-air as well as surface-to-air missiles were also used to intercept aerial targets.

Defence Spokesperson Col Sombit Ghosh told PTI that numerous aircraft, including fighters, helicopters and force enablers will participate in the exercise. 

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will also attend the Vayushakti 2019 which showcase capabilities of various fighter aircraft such as Mirage-2000, Su-30 MKI, MiG 27, Juguar, Tejas, Hawk, MiG-21 Bison, Mi-17 V5, Mi-35 and ALH MKIV besides other platforms.

"The 7th edition of the Fire Power Demonstration (FPD) of the Indian Air Force will showcase all weather day-dusk-night operations on 16 Feb at Pokhran range, Rajasthan," the IAF had tweeted on Wednesday 

(with PTI inputs)