On July 14, 2023, a lady officer from Indian Air Force (IAF), Squadron Leader Sindhu Reddy, will be seen leading the IAF Contingent on the occasion of the Bastille Day Parade in France. The officer is a helicopter pilot and flies the Mi-17 helicopter of the Indian Air Force.
Apart from the Indian Air Force, contingents from the Indian Army and Indian Navy will be participating in the military parade. The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, will be the guest of honour.
In a statement issued on July 6, 2023, the two hundred and sixty-nine tri-service contingents left India for France in two C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft from a frontline airbase in the west Indian state of Gujarat. Three Rafael fighters of the Indian Air Force will be seen in a flypast during the parade. The Rafale, two C-17 aircraft, and an IL-78 Refueler left for France.
Squadron leader Sindhu Reddy will lead the sixty-eight-member IAF contingent taking part in the parade. She also led the IAF marching contingent on the Republic Day Parade in 2023. The army contingent will be led by Captain Aman Jagtap, and the naval contingent will be led by Commander Vrat Baghel.
“This year, both countries are celebrating twenty-five years of strategic partnership. The armies of both countries have taken part in exercises and sharing experiences. Over the years, India and France have become reliable defence partners,” the statement read.
A French Army contingent took part in the Republic Day parade for the first time in 2016, when President Francois Hollande was the chief guest at India’s biggest ceremonial event in New Delhi. The National Security Advisor of India, Ajit Doval, on July 6, 2023, held talks in Delhi with Emmanuel Bonne, the diplomatic adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron to firm up the agenda of PM Narendra Modi’s visit to France.
“Emmanuel Bonne, Diplomatic Adviser to President Emmanuel Macron, held deep talks with NSA Ajit Doval to prepare them for PM Modi’s visit to France next week. Defence, energy, space, new technologies and more, we are working on an ambitious agenda for the strategic partnership,” the French Embassy In India tweeted.
The Macron government has given the go-ahead and green signal to the French defence organisation, Safran, to jointly develop, design, test and manufacture and finally certify an engine that is expected to power India’s twin-engine advanced multi-role combat aircraft and the twin-engine deck-based fighter for the Navy.
The army contingent taking part in the parade is the Punjab Regiment of the Indian Army, which is one of its oldest regiments. “The troops have participated in both the World Wars and post-independence operations. In the First World War, the gallant officers and soldiers from the regiment were awarded 18 Battle Honours and Theater Honours.” They have served in Mesopotamia, Gallipoli, Palestine, Egypt, China, Hong Kong, Damascus and France.
They earned the battle honours of Loos and France and Flanders. In World War -2, they earned 16 battle honours and 14 Theater Honours,” the army statement said. The French Air Force is expected to take part in a mega exercise to be hosted by the IAF later this year,
The exercise named Tarang Shakti will be the biggest multi-nation aerial exercise (Air Forces of twelve nations) are expected to participate to be conducted on Indian Soil and will involve fighter jets, military transport aircraft, mid-air refuellers, and airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft.
The IAF Rafale jets debuted in an overseas exercise in April 2023. Exercise Orion was held at the Mont-de-Marsan airbase in France from April 17 to May 5, 2023. It involved the air forces of host nations like the United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands and Spain. Four Indian Rafales, two C-17 heavy lifters, two Il-78 refuelers and 165 air warriors took part in the exercise.
