Indian Air Force postpones Vayushakti-2022

New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) has postponed the Vayushakti-2022 military drill at Pokhran Firing Range in Rajasthan which was scheduled on Monday, March 7, 2022. No reason was cited by the Indian Air Force for deferring the exercise, the Full Dress Rehearsal (FDR) of which was conducted yesterday on 4 March at the Firing Range.

Vayu Shakti is the IAF's biggest exercise, and is held every three years to showcase India's air power. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to attend the event as the chief guest.

This is the second major defence event that has been postponed. Earlier, the Ministry of Defence had announced postponing of its flagship Defence Expo 2022, which was to be held in Gujarat's Gandhinagar between March 10 and March 14.

According to the Indian Air Force, 148 aircraft including 109 fighter jets were scheduled to participate in the exercise including 24 helicopters, seven transport planes and four remotely-piloted aircraft, involving a variety of operations such as counter airstrike, defensive counter-air, offensive counter-air, and other demonstrations. A variety of missiles including Aakash and Spyder missile systems were also supposed to be demonstrated during the event.

For the first time the Rafale aircraft was scheduled to participate in the exercise, along with Jaguar, Sukhoi-30, MiG-29, Tejas, and Mirage-2000.

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