Exercise Cope India begins

  • Published
  • By Capt. Genieve David
  • 13th Air Force Public Affairs
AIR FORCE STATION AGRA, India --  More than 400 combined airmen from the United States and India began the fourth installment of exercise Cope India, a bilateral humanitarian assistance disaster relief exercise, after officially kicking-off here Oct. 19.

The exercise will exchange airlift, air land, and tactical airdrop delivery techniques using three C-130H Hercules, one C-17 Globemaster III, one C-130J, and IAF aircraft to include one IL-76 Gajraj, four AN-32 Sutlejes, two MI-17 Prataps, and one Chetak Alouette. 

"The changing world order places an honest demand on us to safeguard peace and freedom," said commanding air officer of Agra, Indian air force Air Commodore Shouvik Roy. "These exercises allow us to explore effect-based operational utilization of our assets." 

Additionally, both air forces will conduct cooperative flight operations, to include aircraft generation and recovery, low-level navigation, host subject matter expert exchanges in the operations, maintenance and rigging disciplines.

"A strong strategic relationship between the United States and India is crucial to addressing regional security, and challenges such as maintaining peace, security, stability and responding to humanitarian crises and natural disasters when they occur, said U.S. Ambassador to India, Timothy Roemer.

"This exercise is a perfect example of how the U.S. Air Force and the Indian Air Force are working together - sharing information, training and expertise to develop as professional forces," he added.

The exercise is scheduled from Oct. 19-24.