 "Veer Guardian 2023: IAF aircraft touch down in Japan for military exercise, receive grand welcome")
Omitama (Japan): A contingent of the Indian Air Force (IAF) has landed in Japan for military exercises with the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF). Named the Veer Guardian 2023, the inaugural edition of the bilateral exercise will be held at Japan’s Hyakuri Air Base from January 12-26.
The IAF has sent a total of seven planes including four Su-30 MKI, two C-17 Globemasters and an IL-78 tanker aircraft to take part in the Veer Guardian 2023 military exercises in Japan.
The IAF contingent was accorded a grand welcome in Japan with the JASDF greeting the Sukhoi-30MKI aircraft with a water cannon salute.
Indian Ambassador to Japan Sibi George welcomed the IAF contingent at the Hyakuri Air Base along with Maj Gen Ishimura Takahisa, the commander of the 7th Air Wing of the JASDF.
The Sukhoi-30MKI fighter planes of the IAF have reportedly evoked a lot of interest in Japan and have created a buzz on Japanese social media.
The interest in Japan over the Sukhoi-30MKI aircraft is in part due to the fact that the last time a Russian fighter jet landed in the east Asian nation was 47 years ago, causing a massive diplomatic row.
On September 6, 1976, Lt. Viktor Belenko, an officer in the Soviet Union military, had successfully defected to the West by flying a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 Foxbat fighter aircraft across the Sea of Japan to Hakodate, Japan.
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View AllThe arrival of the Russia-made IAF aircraft has revived memories of that incident among those who had witnessed the 1976 defection.
When India and Japan decided to conduct a joint air combat exercise, the JASDF had requested that Sukhoi-30MKI aircraft be sent for Veer Guardian 2023 in order to know more about with the aircraft it might have to fight in case of a war with China, which uses the inferior MKM variant.
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