If you have always been fascinated by the idea of flying afighter aircraft on a combat mission for the Indian Air Force (IAF), you can doit right from the comfort of your living room now.
The IAF launched an app on Wednesday that allows you to playa combat game on 10 different missions, including the surgical strike, usingyour mobile phone.
The game named ‘Indian Air Force — A Cut Above’ waslaunched here by Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa.
The game features a character similar to Wing CommanderAbhinandan Varthaman with a gunslinger moustache as the mascot pilot, but thiscan be customised by a user.
Varthaman was captured and later released by Pakistan afterhis aircraft was shot down in an aerial dogfight soon after the Balakotairstrikes.
The missions on the app are dramatic. Take the surgicalstrike mission for example. Inspection of a damaged dam reveals that it wassabotaged by a terrorist group from a neighbouring country. India’s diplomaticengagements with the neighbouring country to mete out justice to the terroristgroup fails. You go on a surgical strike mission to strike deep into the enemycamp with precision weapons.
You choose a multi-role Mirage 2000 aircraft armed to theteeth with weapons such as the MICA, Griffin LGB, Spice 2000 bombs and 30 mmautocannons.
With these, you drop laser guided bombs on the enemy camps,provide support to a team of ‘Garud’ commandos and also provide it cover toexfiltrate from the area.
The game, which has been launched with a single-playerversion, includes nine other combat missions of similar nature.
In the ‘natural disaster event’, the challenge for theplayer will be to provide humanitarian assistance after a dam breach occurshigh up in the mountains.
A player is required to carry out a combat air patrol andintercept incoming enemy fighters and bombers in ‘air defence ops’.
In the mission ‘combat support ops’, a user will fly a heavytransport aircraft to provide much-needed supplies in forward areas. The playerwill provide close air support to on-ground troops flying an attack helicopterin the combat mission ‘anti-tank and SEAD’.
The ‘offensive cap’ mission requires a player to usestate-of-the-art electronic weaponry deep into the enemy’s airfields.
In ‘air-to-air refuelling’, a player will be challenged tofill up tanks mid-air and provide fuel to teammates.
The mission ‘maritime strike’ challenges a player to providesupport to naval forces by intercepting incoming enemy warships.
The ‘base defence mission’ challenges players to use SAMs,AA guns and shoulder fired weapons to protect the base. A player faces thechallenge to take on enemy mothership and unmanned aerial vehicles in the’futuristic weapons’ mission.
The game can be downloaded from Google Play Store on Androidand iOS platforms. In order to play the game, one has to register on the appusing a valid e-mail id and password.
There are also features of free flight and training apartfrom the game which can be played at three levels of difficulty — easy, mediumand hard.
The user has the option to choose between seven differentaircraft including the Hawk, Mi-17, C17, Apache, Mirage 2000, Su-30 and Rafale.This set of aircraft does not include the Tejas, Bison or the MiG-29.
There are three training missions available for the players,i.e., take off and navigation, armaments training and landing.
The app has been launched with the collaboration ofIndia-based developer Threye Interactive. It also contains a link to careers inthe air force apart from the game.
The IAF had earlier launched another mobile gaming appcalled ‘Guardians of the Sky’. However, the new game has more features and is alot more interactive.