‘Brilliant experience’: Indian forces return from Exercise Bright Star in Egypt
28 Squadron Commanding Officer Group Captain said that Indian Army got an opporunity to fight and train with nine other participating countries.
The Indian Air Force's MiG-29 fighter jets from 28 squadrons returned to India from Egypt after over a month on Saturday after the 'Exercise Bright Star' ended. A contingent of 137 personnel of the Indian military departed for the tri-services joint military exercise on August 29.
Upon return, 28 Squadron Commanding Officer Group Captain Parijat Jha, speaking to news agency ANI, said that the experience was brilliant as the Indian forces got an opportunity to fight and train with nine other participating countries.
Jha said, “'Exercise Bright Star' is a multilateral multinational exercise which was conducted in Egypt, it hosted almost 34 countries and they participated in Army, Navy, Air Force, and all three elements. The entire experience of the exercise was really brilliant. We got to fight and train with almost nine countries who had participated in Egypt for the Exercise Bright Star.”
The exercise, which began on August 31, is led by the United States Central Command (US CENTCOM) and the Egyptian Army.
Further speaking about the experience in training with other countries, Jha said that the Indian forces got to witness several fighter jets from across the world. He said, “I got to see not only the MiG 29 of the Indian Air Force there were MiG 29 of Indian-Egypt, F-16s of USAF, the Mirage 2000s of French Air Force, there were F-16s from Greece, A-10s from the US Air Force and finally, there were F15s from Saudi Arabia.”
This was the first time the Indian Air Force took part in the tri-service exercise.
Jha said that the exercise was an opportunity for India to showcase its abilities and strategic reach. He added, “The global outreach and the strategic reach of the Indian Air Force were seen in this. We also got to showcase our capabilities. The Egyptians were thrilled to see us and to see our capabilities that we were able to shoot down in training exercises, so many aircraft. I feel really proud to represent India and Indian Air Force.”
Exercise Bright Star - 23 was created as a training exercise between the United States and Egypt during the 1977 Camp David Accord. Its first edition was conducted in 1980 and it expanded to include other countries in 1995.