Indian Air Force Day on 8th October

Many a times some questions always come in our mind – Why we celebrate Indian Air Force Day? Why we celebrate Indian Army Day?  Or why we celebrate Indian Navy Day? These questions are popularinIndia and generally people ask in their circle.

So before knowing more about Indian Air Force – Here is the reason why we celebrate Indian Air Force Day?

We Indian celebrate Indian Air Force Day on 8 October as the establishment date of Air Force. In 1932 Indian Air Force officially established in a name of Royal Indian Air Force but after Independence of India and separation from Pakistan this air arm of Indian Defense called Indian Air Force.

This year also we Indian’s are celebrating our Indian Air Force Day 2018.

We can’t describe Indian Air Force history in some words but we want to aware about and share some

Important information with you in short.

Indian Air Force the air arm of Indian Armed forces. Indian Air force ranked world’s fourth best Air Force

depend on personnel and air craft assets.

Indian Air Force Primary Mission

To Secure Indian Airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts.

Motto of Indian Air Force

नभः स्पृशं दीप्तम् in Sanskrit

Nabhaḥ Sprsam Diptam

Touch the Sky with Glory

Introduction of Indian Air Force

Officially established on 08^th October 1932 as Royal Indian Air Force.

First AC Flight done on 01 April 1933.

Strength of Indian Air Force in starting was 6 RAF trained Officers, 19 Hawai Sepoys with 4

Wetland Wapiti IIA Army Co-operation biplanes.

All Wars and Operations of Indian Air Force

Initially just after 4 years of establishment Indian Air Force support Indian Army operation against

insurgent Bhittani Tribesmen in North Waziristan.

• Participated in Burma war
• Participated in world war 2
•  After independence in 1947
• War with Pakistan 4 times and one time with China
• Bangladesh Liberation War
• Congo crisis and Annexation of Goa (1960–1961)
• Kargil War

Major Operations done by Indian Air Force

1. Operation Vijay
2. Operation Meghdoot
3. Operation Cactus
4. Operation Poomalai
5.  United Nation peacekeeping missions.

Strength of Indian Air Force Till July 1, 2017

• President of India The Supreme Commander of the IAF
• Personnel working – 1,39,796+
• Air Crafts – 1720+
• Some Special details about Indian Air Force
• Only five Star rank officer till date – Marshal of Air Force – Arjan Singh

Structure of Indian Air Force

• Chief of the Air Staff                            Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, VM
• Vice Chief Of Air Staff                                                         Air Marshal Anil Khosla PVSM, AVSM, VM
• Deputy Chief of Air Staff                                                     Air Marshal V R Chaudhari AVSM, VM
• Air Officer in Charge of Personnel                                    Air Marshal B Suresh, AVSM, VM
• Air Officer in Charge of Maintenance                              Air Marshal R K S Shera, AVSM, VSM
• Director General of Inspection and Flight Safety         Air Marshal S Harpal Singh, AVSM, SM
• Director General of Air Operations                                 Air Marshal Amit Dev, VSM
• Director General of Medical Services (Air)                    Air Marshal Pawan Kapoor, VSM Bar, PHS
• Air Officer in Charge of Administration                       Air Marshal Hemant Narayan Bhagwat AVSM, VM

Commands of Indian Air Force

1. Central Air Command (CAC)        Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh             Air Marshal Shyam Bihari Prasad Sinha
2. Eastern Air Command (EAC)        Shillong, Meghalaya                       Air Marshal Raghunath Nambia
3. Southern Air Command (SAC)    Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala      Air Marshal Balakrishnan Suresh
4. South Western Air Command (SWAC)    Gandhinagar, Gujarat   Air Marshal Harjit Singh Arora
5. Western Air Command (WAC)        New Delhi                                   Air Marshal Chandrashekharan Hari K
6. Training Command (TC)+              Bangalore, Karnataka                   Air Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh B
7. Maintenance Command (MC)+ Nagpur, Maharashtra                   Air Marshal Hemant Sharma

Key Terms Used In Indian Air Force

• Air Force Station – An  aerodrome used by a Air force for the military operations is called as station.
• Wing – Is a formation between a command and a squadron. Consist of 2/3 squadrons and helicopter units along with forward base support unit. Wing is commanded by Group Captain
• Squadrons/Unit – Are the field units and attached to static locations. A fighter squadron is consist of 18 aircraft. Fighter Squadrons are headed by Wing Commander. In some cases it is headed by Group Captain.
• Flights –  They are sub-division of Squadrons. Headed by Squadron Leader rank officer.
• Sections – This is the smallest Unit and headed by Flight Lieutenant and each section consist of 3 air craft

Various Branches of Indian Air Force

Flying Branch

• Flying

Technical Branch

• Engineering

Ground Branch

• Logistics
• Administration
• Accounts
• Education
• Medical & Dental
• Meteorological

Ranks and Insignia of Indian  Air Force

List of Air Crafts in Indian Air Force

Sukhoi Su-30MKI :

The IAF’s primary air superiority fighter with the additional capability to conduct air-ground (strike)

missions is Sukhoi Su-30MKI. The IAF have placed an order for a total of 272 Su-30MKIs of which

242 are in service as of January 2016.

Mikoyan MiG-29 :

The Mikoyan MiG-29 known as Baaz (Hindi for Hawk) is a dedicated air superiority fighter and

constitutes a second line of defence after the Sukhoi Su-30MKI. 69 MiG-29s are in service,

all of which have been recently upgraded to the MiG-29UPG standard.

Dassault Mirage 2000 :

The Dassault Mirage 2000, known as Vajra (Sanskrit for Diamond or thunderbolt) in Indian service,

is the primary multirole fighter, the IAF currently operates 49 Mirage 2000Hs and 8 Mirage 2000 TH

all of which are currently being upgraded to the Mirage 2000-5 MK2 standard with Indian specific

modifications and 2 Mirage 2000-5 MK2 are in service as of March 2015.

HAL Tejas :

The MiG-21s are planned to be replaced by the indigenous built HAL Tejas. The first Tejas IAF unit,

No. 45 Squadron IAF Flying Daggers was formed on 1 July 2016 with two aircraft. Initially being stationed

at Bangalore, the first squadron will be placed at its home base at Sulur, Tamil Nadu.

SEPECAT Jaguar:

The SEPECAT Jaguar known as Shamsher serves as the IAF’s primary ground attack force.

The IAF currently operates 139 Jaguars. The first batch of DARIN-1 Jaguars are now going

through a DARIN-3 upgrade being equipped with EL/M-2052 AESA radars, and an improved jamming suite

plus new avionics.

Mikoyan MiG-27 :

The Mikoyan MiG-27 known as Bahadur (Hindi for Valiant) serves as the IAF’s primary ground attack force.

The IAF currently operates over 85 MiG-27s. The type will be phased out soon to account for increasing

serviceability concerns and 40 of them have been upgraded for improved strike missions, including

laser designation and with self-protection jamming

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 :

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 serves as an Interceptor aircraft in the IAF. These aircraft are phased out

between 2014 and 2017.

List of war exercises of Indian Air Force in 2018

Gaganshakti

Pitch Black

Bi-lateral exercise

Aviaindra