Pakistani, Turk pilots to size up Rafale jets in Turkish exercise

Pakistani and Turkish pilots will get an opportunity to size up Rafale fighter jets recently bought by India and Greece in this year’s international Anatolian Eagle-2021(AE-21) Exercise to commence tomorrow in Turkey.

According to information released by the Turkish Air Force, the purpose of the exercise is “sharing the knowledge, skills and experiences of all participants in a real-like war environment and raising the training levels for combined operations.”

This will be the first Pakistani and Turkish pilots will get duel against the Rafales in a combat environment during an exercise. While India has inducted some of its Rafale Jets, Greece's first Rafale aircraft are expected to arrive later this year.

In this year’s AE-21 Exercise, Qatar Air Force will bring four Rafale jets while Pakistan Air Force is participating with five JF-17s. The Azerbaijani Air Forces is bringing two MIG-29s and two SU-25s.

The Turkish Air Force is contributing 38 F-16C/D fighters and one ANKA-S attack drone which will be participating in an international exercise for the first time. Besides, it will bring in a KC-135R tanker aircraft

During the exercise, the certification of the Turkish Air Force committed to NATO Response Force (NRF) will be carried out for the first time. The combat readiness and interoperability of six F-16s, KC-135R tanker aircraft, and 6x Stinger Air Defense Teams, committed by the Turkish Air Force to the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) as part of NRF will be evaluated, defenceturk reported.