The US and Indian air forces will train together during the next installment of the Cope India exercise that begins on Thursday and runs through Oct. 24 at Air Force Station Agra in Uttar Predesh, India. This year’s activities will focus on airlift to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster-relief support. More than 150 USAF airmen, along with one C-17, three C-130Hs, and one C-130J, will travel to India to train with their Indian counterparts. “Exercises like Cope India strengthen solid military-to-military relationships with our air forces in the region,” said Raymond Bundschuh, lead planner for the exercise with 13th Air Force at Hickam AFB, Hawaii. (Hickam report by Capt. Genieve David)
The defense intelligence community has tried three times in the past decade to build a “common intelligence picture”—a single data stream providing the information that commanders need to make decisions about the battlefield. The first two attempts failed. But officials say things are different today.