Probe ordered after bomb fired by combat aircraft Tejas misses target at Air Force event
Iron Fist 2016 was held in Pokhran and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee.
The Indian Air Force ordered an investigation on Monday after a laser-guided bomb fired by the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft missed its target during the 'Iron Fist 2016' exercise last week. The event was held on Friday in Rajasthan's Pokhran and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee.
An Air Force officer told NDTV the pilot was not responsible for the miss at the "largely successful" event. "It is very much clear that there was no pilot error or technical snag. It was probably the laser-guided kit imported from Israel that may have malfunctioned," he told NDTV. He said it was completely normal that one or two bombs did not hit the targets during such mammoth firepower demonstration. As many as 181 aircraft participated in the exercise, where 71 bombs, 500 rockets and at least five air-to-air missiles were fired.