Star of David over the UK

摘要

WHEN IT comes to defence, in recent years, since the end of the Cold War, Britain has maintained its contacts with neighbouring nations for training purposes. Joint exercises with NATO members and other friendly nations are regular features of the Royal Air Force's and the United Kingdom's other armed services year. Regular exercises like Joint Warrior test the skills of British armed forces and brothers-in- arms from the United States, France and Canada. Increasingly, perhaps as a result of the expeditionary nature of many of the Royal Air Force's real-world operations, as well as the urge to sell British military equipment overseas, exchanges of aircraft and personnel further afield have become more commonplace. The concomitant of that is that warplanes from far-flung nations visit the UK to train with the Royal Air Force. In 2007 Exercise Indradhanush (Hindi for Rainbow) saw six Sukhoi Su-30MKI Flanker-H air superiority fighters visit RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire to train against visiting British Tornado F3s of XXV Squadron as well as Eurofighter Typhoons from nearby RAF Coningsby. Eight years later the exercise was held at Coningsby with four Sukhois making the trek from India.