E-Paper
Indian Air Force Day: 80 aircraft to touch the sky with glory at grand show
Parade will be held at Indian Air Force station in the morning; flypast at Sukhna Lake will be presided over by President on October 8; Rajnath Singh will also be present; new combat uniform for personnel to be unveiled
The Indian Air Force (IAF) will put up a dazzling show with around 80 aircraft in Chandigarh on October 8 to celebrate its 90th anniversary.
The flypast is planned to be held over Sukhna Lake where a large number of people can come and witness combat aircraft such as the Rafale, Su-30 and Mirage 2000. With 80 aircraft, one can expect some vivid and varying formations for the flypast. The details about the number of aircraft and formations for the upcoming IAF Day celebrations were shared by the air force authorities on Tuesday.
A parade will be held at the IAF station in the morning of October 8. Later in the day, the flypast at Sukhna Lake will be presided over by President Droupadi Murmu. Defence minister Rajnath Singh will also be present on the occasion.
The Indian Air Force has decided to celebrate this year’s annual Air Force Day parade and flypast in Chandigarh. Rehearsals for the air display by various aircraft have already started. Also, a new combat uniform will be unveiled on this year’s IAF Day.
While some formations are expected before the arrival of the President, some of them will be held after her arrival at the lake. People will also witness the indigenously made Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) ‘Prachand’ which was inducted by the IAF on Monday. It has been developed primarily for mountain warfare. Prachand will be part of the flypast in a three-aircraft formation. It was inducted into the IAF at a ceremony in Jodhpur in the presence of defence minister Rajnath Singh and Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari.
The induction of Rafale aircraft started in September 2020 with the first batch of five Rafale aircraft being inducted to the Indian Air Force’s 17 Squadron ‘Golden Arrows’ after they arrived on July 27, 2020, at the Ambala Air Force Station from France. Formations will also include ‘Sekhon’ named after IAF Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Sekhon who was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra.
Vivid and varying formations
Vintage as well as current modern aircraft like the Rafale, Prachand, Mi-35, Su-30, Jaguar, Mi-17, Chinook, Apache, Howard and Dakota will display different formations, including Akashganga, Ensign, Eklavya, Trishul, Mehar, Shamsher, Vajra, Sarang and Suryakiran, at the flypast.
