The Indian Air Force will celebrate its 88th anniversary on Thursday with a ceremonial parade and flight involving a variety of aircraft at Hindon Air Base. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and border tensions with China in the Ladakh sector, where the air force is on high alert, the scale of the IAF Day parade will be greater than last year with more aircraft participating. in the ceremonial flight.
Here are five highlights from the parade.
1. Compared to the 51 aircraft that participated in last year’s IAF Day parade, this year’s flypast will feature 56 aircraft, including fighters, transport aircraft, and helicopters. Rafale fighter jets will participate for the first time in the IAF Day flypast. This will mark their second public appearance after the planes were formally installed at Ambala air base on September 10.
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2. The Rafale will fly in two different formations during the flypast. They will first fly the Jaguars and Mirage 2000 in the Arrowhead formation, followed by another formation with the Sukhoi-30 and the Tejas light combat aircraft.
3. The number of aircraft in different formations has also increased this year from three to five. The parade will feature 19 combat aircraft, seven transport aircraft, 19 helicopters, two vintage aircraft, and nine aircraft belonging to Surya Kiran’s aerobatic team.
4. In addition to the Rafale, combat aircraft participating in the parade include the Su-30, Jaguar, Mirage 2000, MiG-29, MiG-21 Bison, and Tejas. The Rafales, Su-30 and MiG-29 are among the aircraft deployed to the Ladakh theater to deal with any provocation from the Chinese army.
5. Transport aircraft that will fly in different formations during the flight step include C-17 heavy elevators and C-130 special operations aircraft. Both aircraft are widely used in the Ladakh sector to transport soldiers and equipment. The flypast will also feature multi-mission Chinook helicopters, Apache attack helicopters and Mi-35 gunships.
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