Thread by @lhsingapura

1. Below, the magnificent Su-30MKI at the ‘walk’ phase of the crawl-walk-run stages of Ex. Pitch Black 2022, during Dissimilar Air Combat Training (DACT).

2. But there are some Indian misconceptions about how training is conducted, especially over its DACT with a RAAF Growler.

https://twitter.com/ausairforce/status/1564140158466904064

3. All of this, "my Indian Su-30MKI kicked your Growler's butt" is silly. A valuable part of this phase of #PitchBlack22 is watching how the other side operates, to learn what kind of tactics they use, including how they have been "modified" along with the weapons declared.

4. A 1 v 1 scenario of a MKI v a Growler is so constrained that it's not a viable situation in real life. In real life, Growlers are escorted by other fighters to perform their EW & SEAD role — to ensure a unfair fight.

https://twitter.com/livefist/status/1563030472472399873

5. Any Blue Force strike package in a coalition large force employment exercise directed by a E-7A, will see fighters like Su-30MKIs or F-35As employed in a DCA or OCA role to protect the EA-18Gs.

https://twitter.com/SSgtKotyk/status/1533673801774407680

6. The Su-30MKI may be an excellent dog fighter but that’s not the preferred method for any OCA package from JASDF, USAF, USN, RAAF, ROKAF, or RSAF to engage red air. The modern air-air fight is at BVR ranges (with the AIM-260 starting to appear in numbers from FY2026).

https://twitter.com/iiss_org/status/1187335684853522432

7. For years, IAF Su-30MKIs have been engaged in DACT with RSAF F-16C/Ds, to get a better idea of Pakistani tactics. It’s no surprise that coalition pilots, featured below, are using the MKI to learn more about PLAAF (Shenyang J-11) & Russian (Sukhoi Su-30) tactics.

8. Likewise Singapore also needs CONOPS help from the US Marines, the RAF & the Aeronautica Militare (as fellow operators of the F-35B) — as we do not have prior STOVL aircraft ops experience. There should be no shame in learning to operate in a coalition more effectively.

9. MAJ Sivaraj (36), flew his F-15SG as an “enemy” against RAAF F-35As in a “very challenging scenario”, said his opponents handled it “very well”.

10. “Through this we can actually see how capable the F-35s are in their teamwork. The way the aircraft flies, how they target the adversaries & how they work together as a team was quite impressive to see,” MAJ Arumugam Sivaraj said as Red Air.

11. “Exercises like this just help us understand these aircraft in a large-force scenario, & that kind of knowledge will help us form and shape some (operational concepts) that we think we can employ subsequently,” COL Mark Tan (44), as RSAF’s exercise director said.

12. I am aware that air forces of small & medium powers (no matter how capable), need to operate as part of a coalition to have mass — the 1991 GWI is an eg. of American power & mass, when they help liberate a country (like Kuwait), from the naked aggression of Saddam’s Iraq.

https://twitter.com/realairpower1/status/1337838692602351618

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