India has accepted an invitation from the US to participate in its first multinational advanced aerial combat training exercise in August next year, local Calcutta-based newspaper The Telegraph reported Tuesday.

The outgoing air officer commanding-in-chief of the Eastern Air Command, Air Marshal P.K. Barbora, described the opportunity to participate in the Red Flag program as a "historic" one.

"We will simulate war conditions, a sort of mock drill with full military equipment as part of preparations for any real war situation," he told the media Monday in Shillong, the Meghalaya capital in northeastern India.

The advanced aerial combat training program will be at the Nellis airbase in Nevada, the United States. The US Air Force, its military units, NATO allies and others have been part of such exercises since 1975. The use of live ammunition for bombing exercises is one of the specialties of the program.

The Indian Air Force received Delhi's permission to participate in the Red Flag program last month after much browbeating by the left parties, which had argued that it would be tantamount to surrendering to the United States.

Barbora said the Red Flag program will give India "phenomenal exposure" to the air capabilities of the other participating countries.

(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2007)