New Delhi, Aug. 30: Air force headquarters has convened a major exercise named Gagan Shakti involving nearly all types of aircraft in its fleet and newly-acquired assets.

The drill will be held for three weeks from September 4 to 27. It will be conducted in the areas of responsibility of the Western and South Western air commands, covering airbases and airspace from Jammu and Kashmir to Goa.

Indian Air Force sources said air-traffic controls across the region have been told in advance and they do not expect major disruption of civilian flights because of the exercise.

The objective of the exercise is to draw lessons in “air dominance”. Blue (friendly) forces will seek to damage the assets of Red (enemy) forces and rule the skies over a given area for operations by surface (army and naval) forces. Although the army and the navy will be involved, this is an exercise of the IAF, air headquarters sources said here today.

Gagan Shakti is being held after a two-year focus on bilateral and multilateral exercises with foreign air forces both in India and overseas. The air force will try out lessons it has learnt in those drills and adapt them to subcontinent conditions. No foreign observer is likely to be invited.

The drill will try “to ensure optimum employment and integration of force multipliers and available space-based assets,” the vice-chief of air staff, Air Marshal Ajit Bhavnani, told participants at a briefing at air headquarters today.

The Western and South Western air commands have in their inventory nearly all types of combat and transport aircraft from the IAF’s inventory — interceptors, deep-penetration strike aircraft, air superiority aircraft, helicopters and gunships.

The force multipliers to be employed on such a large scale in an exercise by the IAF for the first time are unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), such as the Israeli-manufactured Searcher Mark II and the IL-78 mid-air refuellers.

Air headquarters had conducted exercises that were larger than Gagan Shakti. But the amount of airpower and technology that will be tested by the IAF during the exercise is unprecedented because of the new acquisitions.