Article Posted on : - Sep 30, 2009

A File Photo.

NEW DELHI (PTI): With the aim of checking their preparedness, the Army and the Air Force carried out a joint exercise in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh near the Chinese border last week.

Codenamed 'Operation Pralay', the three-day exercise involved all the frontline fighter aircraft, including Sukhoi, Mirage-2000, MiG-29, MiG-27 and IL-78 air-to-air refueling planes, Defence Ministry sources told PTI here Wednesday.

Army personnel with their Mi-17, Cheetah and Chetak helicopters also participated in the war-games, they said.

The exercise held between September 22 and 24 involved all the frontier air bases in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, they said.

"The Army and the IAF carried out the three-day joint exercise with the aim of checking preparedness and jointness," a source said.

The exercise was co-ordinated by IAF's Shillong-based Eastern Air Command and the army's Eastern Command in Kolkata.

The exercise came in the backdrop of reports of Chinese ground and air incursions in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh, which both the countries have been trying to downplay.