Red Flag: US Air Force says sorry for pilot’s comments

As first reported by The Indian Express, the frank assessment by the USAF pilot, identified as Colonel Terrence Fornof, was posted on a video sharing website and created a controversy as it shared details of the exercise and said that the IAF suffered from a high ‘friendly kill’ rate and had serviceability issues with the Su 30 MKI fighters.

In the clarification letter sent to the Air HQ, the USAF has made it clear that the “views are not shared” and it is looking forward to more exercises with the IAF in the near future. The US air force, sources said, sent the letter on its own and were not responding to any complaints from the Air HQ.

While senior IAF officers have ridiculed the comments of the US pilot and have said that he was not even part of the Red Flag exercise but had only a support role, the video created a lot of debate across defence circles even as the Air HQ chose to ignore the issue.

“There is no question of embarrassment to the air force. The real results are far removed from what has been claimed in the video. The letter also states that those were personal views and not that of the US air force,” a senior officer said.

The US pilot had claimed that India’s most modern aircraft, the SU 30 MKI, had performed poorly in comparison with its US counterparts. He also said the Indian pilots suffered from a high fratricide rate, the term used for friendly kills, and had problems with the Sukhoi engines that were vulnerable to foreign object damage.