New Su-30MKIs fighter bases in East, West, South

[arp2041]

As the Indian Air Force (IAF) is gearing up to phase out its old warhorses the Soviet-vintage MiG-21s the agile and lethal Sukhoi Su-30MKIs are going to be its back bone – with a total of 17 squadrons to be deployed along side India’s border with Pakistan and China and also in the South to cover up the country’s southern flank up to Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

On the west the efforts to deploy these air dominance fighter jets at these bases are aimed at countering the US’ F-16s and Chinese JF-17 ‘Thunder’ jets Pakistan is procuring, and in the east the objective is to balance the massive development carried out by China in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

“Plans are in the offing to base these war birds at Bhuj (Gujarat), Sirsa (Haryana), Kalaikunda (West Bengal), Hashimara (in West Bengal) and Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu,” officials said. The strategic importance of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has compelled the IAF to bolster its capability in the region. Plans are in the offing to have a fighter jets in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, from where the Sukhois have operated in the past.

The new Sukhoi bases in Bhuj and Sirsa will be on the Western border and will be conducting strategic surveillance and reconnaissance in the region. On this side of the border the Sukhois are already based at Bhatinda and Halwara in Punjab and Jodhpur air base in Rajasthan. On the Eastern side in Kalaikunda and Hashimara, the fighter jets will complement the Tejpur and Chabua fighter bases. Armed with Israeli reconnaissance pods, these fighter jets have the capability to look into the Chinese territory for good 300 kms.

At present the IAF has Su-30MKIs frontline fighter jets – that can be altered to drop a nuclear bomb – are based at Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh), in Tezpur (Assam), Halwara (Punjab), Pune (Lohegaon) and Jodhpur. The Sukhois were inducted into the IAF at Lohegaon air base in 2002 thereafter they were inducted at Bareilly followed by inductions at Tejpur, Chabua, Jodhpur, Bhatinda and Halwara.

“The Sukhoi fighter squadron at Bhuj and Sirsa shall be inducted by the end of this year. Kalaikunda and Hashimara will be ready by mid next year. Thanjavur is aimed to be operational by 2015,” officials added.

The IAF has contracted for 230 Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jets from Russia. Out of these 140 will be manufactured under license at the public sector major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in India. With the IAF needing to maintain minimum squadron strength in the face of the phasing out of MiG-21s and MiG-27s, the HAL has been asked to complete its present order by 2013-14.

Presently the last of the pilots’ batch is getting trained on MiG-21s Type 77 – the oldest of the MiG-21s that were the force’s mainstay in 1971 Indo-Pak War. They are scheduled to finish its syllabus by January 2014 paving the way for their retirement. Whereas the two squadrons of Type-96 MiG-21s will revert back to operational role from training and will continue to serve the force till 2015. The four squadrons of MiG-27s will be retired in a phased manner by 2016-17.

defence eXpress: New Su-30MKIs fighter bases in East, West, South

 

[Rajaraja Chola]

Love to see those birds in my state We will be hosting own baby Tejas too

 

[Asskicker]

Love to see those birds in my state We will be hosting own baby Tejas too

Why not in chennai,tambaram.

 

[arp2041]

Love to see those birds in my state We will be hosting own baby Tejas too

May u are blessed with Rafales also

 

[bhisma]

OK, happy birds.. calm down.. anybody aware of its specifications yet ??

 

[Rajaraja Chola]

Why not in chennai,tambaram.

That is not a fully operation base. It has to be updated. Moreover Tanjore will be perfect location for a air base. It cant reach the north or south areas with ease covering the southern region.

 

[Norboo]

Love to see those birds in my state

The way we are going you'd probably see a submarine base established at Bangalore too!

 

[arp2041]

The way we are going you'd probably see a submarine base established at Bangalore too!

Well, I am happy that our armed forces & specially our political leadership is finally giving importance to south in our whole security architecture, we always had the continental mindset & our eyes were only fixed on Pakistan & China, we forgot completely that Britishers din't came from land but sea. IOR is fast turning out to be a region of global importance with US, China, France etc. fixing there sight on it, it's important that we develop our Navy accordingly & also IAF not ignore that bases in southern region are equally important like bases in north, A sukhoi 30 in TN is just icing on cake, as with it's extended reach it can cover almost entire IOR & counter any threat to Indian interests, hope this is just the beginning & IAF will station more sukhois, tejas, rafale & probably FGFA in the south.

OK, happy birds.. calm down.. anybody aware of its specifications yet ??

????

what specifications are u asking?

 

[Rajaraja Chola]

Well, I am happy that our armed forces & specially our political leadership is finally giving importance to south in our whole security architecture, we always had the continental mindset & our eyes were only fixed on Pakistan & China, we forgot completely that Britishers din't came from land but sea. IOR is fast turning out to be a region of global importance with US, China, France etc. fixing there sight on it, it's important that we develop our Navy accordingly & also IAF not ignore that bases in southern region are equally important like bases in north, A sukhoi 30 in TN is just icing on cake, as with it's extended reach it can cover almost entire IOR & counter any threat to Indian interests, hope this is just the beginning & IAF will station more sukhois, tejas, rafale & probably FGFA in the south.



????

what specifications are u asking?

I would like to see Su 30 and Rafales in Lakshadeep too.. Su 30 can cover AP , TN and kerala with ease besides providing as a cover from Sri Lanka and security to IOR region.
SL is not a threat, but considering they have sheltered pakistani aircraft in past, its must to moniter the activities. Already drones are operated from Ramanathapuram.

 

[Abingdonboy]

I would like to see Su 30 and Rafales in Lakshadeep too.. Su 30 can cover AP , TN and kerala with ease besides providing as a cover from Sri Lanka and security to IOR region.
SL is not a threat, but considering they have sheltered pakistani aircraft in past, its must to moniter the activities. Already drones are operated from Ramanathapuram.

AFAIK the IAF does on occasion base fighters on A&N for training purposes but there are no immediate plans to base figthers there permantly although the airbase infrastructure is being upgraded to handle all the a/c in India's inventory. There is no need to base fighters there on a permenant basis- fighters from the mainland can be deployed within hours to A&N if neesercary. Given the Tsunami risk I think the IAF is a bit wary of doing so- they were particuarly hurt in 2004, they lost many, many men and famillies of service members and you don't want to through in stratgically vital weaponary like MKIs into the mix.

 

[arp2041]

AFAIK the IAF does on occasion base fighters on A&N for training purposes but there are no immediate plans to base figthers there permantly although the airbase infrastructure is being upgraded to handle all the a/c in India's inventory. There is no need to base fighters there on a permenant basis- fighters from the mainland can be deployed within hours to A&N if neesercary. Given the Tsunami risk I think the IAF is a bit wary of doing so- they were particuarly hurt in 2004, they lost many, many men and famillies of service members and you don't want to through in stratgically vital weaponary like MKIs into the mix.

well personally i m in favor of basing su-30s permanently in A&N, it is called our immovable AC, so why not utilize it, we know that only Ace against China that India has is the straits of Malacca & A&N is of immense importance in case of a decision to blockade the straits. As far as Tsunami risks is concerned, we all know that job in armed forces is filled with immense risks which one has to take for the security of the nation.

 

[janon]

AFAIK the IAF does on occasion base fighters on A&N for training purposes but there are no immediate plans to base figthers there permantly although the airbase infrastructure is being upgraded to handle all the a/c in India's inventory. There is no need to base fighters there on a permenant basis- fighters from the mainland can be deployed within hours to A&N if neesercary. Given the Tsunami risk I think the IAF is a bit wary of doing so- they were particuarly hurt in 2004, they lost many, many men and famillies of service members and you don't want to through in stratgically vital weaponary like MKIs into the mix.

What counts as "immediate" is debatable, especially in India. But there certainly are plans to have at least one squadron of MKIs in Andaman, and have been there for some time now. It makes a lot of sense too, since they can strike a lot of strategically important targets from there, as well as giving air cover to the navy in the east. They can dominate the Indian ocean and bay of Bengal, and prevent PLAN from coming anywhere into our areas of interest.

India to plug gaps in security of Andaman & Nicobar islands - India - DNA

The officer said, "In fact, the Chinese presence in the region is all the more reason for gearing up the security apparatus in Andaman and Nicobar Islands an the plans include Sukhoi squadrons for air defence and radars for both aerial and surface surveillance."

Though Sukhois have operated from Port Blair in the past, the plans to have a fighter squadron of these potent air dominance jets are still in the pipeline and depend on future induction of the 240 of these aircraft already ordered by India in recent years.

India currently has five Sukhoi squadrons based in Pune, Bareilly and Tezpur. The plans include having at least four air bases at Shipur in the north Andamans and Campbell Bay in the Nicobar Islands in the south, apart from Port Blair and Car Nicobar for which the first two airfields are being upgraded to support night operations and their airstrips are being extended.

 

[jiki]

hey can u guys plz tell me the exact no of su30mki that we are going to have in future it is 272 or 314 b'coz there is some latest nwz that we are going to sign a deal of another 42no during putin visit in dec , imo we have already ordered 272s. Trishul-trident.blogspot.com have projecting the same no title of the post ''Sorry State of affairs"

 

[jiki]

first 50(from russia) and licenced-production of 140 aircraft by HAL---2002
2) 40 nos ----2007
3) 42 nos-----2011
4) and now another 42nos in --2012

the latest tranche is may be the super Sukhoi as reported by our media . so as total of 314 this calc imo is the right one ,plz correct me if i am wrong

 

[arp2041]

^^^ well, to be fair, there are some conflicting reports about the total nos. of sukhois to be procured by IAF, but majority of sources say that this additional 42 are same as the earlier deal signed (in 2011), just that now it will not be normal sukhois but super sukhois (the hint we get is the 42 figure mark, if this was some another deal than we would have gone for 40 instead of 42 since additional 2 were b'coz of the ac lost in accidents as signed in 2011 deal) so the total no. comes out to be 272. But i still think that the final nos. of sukhois to be inducted will get pass the 300 figure mark making it the largest no. of ac in IAF inventory in next 30-40 years, we have to just wait & watch.