New Delhi, June 25: If a Red Flag can be a red rag, this is it.

In the teeth of opposition from the Left over strategic ties with the US, the Indian Air Force is sending its most advanced fighter aircraft, a transporter, a mid-air-refueller and about 150 “air warriors” for a war game born out of lessons America learnt in its war against the communists in Vietnam.

The government has cleared the contingent and the funds required for it, an air headquarters source said today. India will incur about $20 million in despatching the contingent to the US, a figure close to the expenses the US paid for participating in the Malabar 2007 war game in the Bay of Bengal last September which, too, was opposed by the Left.

Officials from the Pentagon emphasise that India would not have to incur such expenses if it were to sign a Logistics Support Agreement, a pact that the UPA government has practically put into cold storage because of the Left.

But the defence ministry is putting the finishing touches to another US-specific “end-user agreement” that will allow verification of the use of military equipment that the US sells to India.

Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major and the IAF had wanted to send the contingent for the early-2008 edition of the Red Flag exercise. But permission for that was withheld, though, officially, it was said that the Centre was considering the implications and the financial burden. The green signal has been given now for the August edition of the exercise.

The politics and diplomatics over the war game do not concern the IAF. “We have to learn the latest in tactics and learn from the experiences of some of the finest air warriors. If we do not learn the latest in tactics, how can we develop as an advanced air force?” the official in air headquarters wondered.

But such an argument does not wash with the Left. The CPM feels that India-US military-to-military relations are part of a package with the civilian nuclear deal.

The air headquarters source said participation in the Red Flag exercise should not be interpreted as a pro-US military posture. “Our Suryakiran (Indian Airforce’s aerobatic squadron) will also be going to China during the Beijing Olympics. Our air chief has also said that a joint drill will with the Chinese PLA airforce is a distinct possibility and we are working towards it.”

The airforce hopes that these friendly gestures towards China will mollify the Left.

Red Flag is not a bilateral exercise because contingents of air forces from at least five or six more countries will participate.

The IAF contingent for Red Flag Nellis, now a war game with two editions a year, will comprise eight Sukhoi-30 Mki multirole fighters, the very latest in its fleet of combat aircraft, an IL-78 refueller, also recently acquired, and an IL-76 transporter.