India, Russia conduct first-ever air exercises

MOSCOW: The Indian and Russian air forces have held their first-ever military exercises involving counter-terror, fire-fighting and air defence in Russia.

The 'Avia Indra-2014' India-Russia Air Exercises started on August 25 and will conclude tomorrow.

An 18-member Indian Air Force team is participating in the exercises, which involve exchange of best practices in counter-terrorism training with helicopters, joint flights in fighter aircraft, fire-fighting and air defence, the Indian Embassy here said in a press release.

The drills are part of regular exchanges of joint exercises between the armed forces of the two countries.

In the current sequence, the two navies held joint exercises from July 14 to 19 off the coast of Vladivostok.

The two armies will also hold their joint exercises, which will also focus on counter-terrorism actions, in September-October 2014.