India to set up airbase near China border

[Sir john]

Countering China's aggressive stance, the Indian Air Force today announced its plan of setting up a full-fledged airbase at Nyoma in the eastern part of Ladakh that will be capable of taking front-line fighters like the Sukhois, besides transporters and choppers. Located just 20 km from the Line of Actual Control with China, Nyoma at present has a landing strip made out of compacted mud at a height of 13,300 feet and can take no more than the USSR-origin medium transporter AN 32. That, too, only during summer months and the engines of the plane have to be kept running lest they do not re-start at that altitude. With the IAF buying the Hercules C-130-J’s, which are build specially for such rough areas, Nyoma may be up and running. This will be the eighth full-fledged air base in Jammu & Kashmir after Srinagar, Awantipore, Udhampur, Jammu, Leh, Thoise and Kargil. The IAF has sent a formal proposal to the Ministry of Defence, chief of the Western Air Command Air Marshall NAK Browne told reporters today, while adding that it would take some four years for the airfield to be fully operational once okayed. “We are looking to operate all platforms of the IAF and the Army and fighters are very much part of our arsenal,†said Browne in reply to question if fighters will be based there. The Sukhoi-30 MKI has been tweaked in manner that its engines start in the rarefied air at those heights. Tests of the same have been carried out at Leh located at some 11,000 feet. Other fighters like the MiG 29s need to be calibrated each time engines have to be re-started at that altitude. The IAF needs more flexible options in that area the weather pattern is far better than the air fields at Leh and Thoise, besides it offers a greater advantage over Chusul located in Ladakh, Air Marshall Browne added. The neglected-yet-strategically located mud-strip at Nyoma was re-activated into an operational airstrip by compacting the mud when an AN-32 transport aircraft landed there last year. As part of firming up its plans against the growing Chinese threat, the IAF is looking to build a hard surface at the 16,000-feet high Daulat Beg Olde, located just south of the Karakoram Range in northern Ladakh. The DBO, Nyoma and ***che are all mud-strips that were reactivated in the past two years after China ramped up infrastructure on its side. Defence Minister AK Antony had this June visited Nyoma to inspect the infrastructure development activities. Separately, the IAF will be ramping up its capabilities, alongside the border with Pakistan. Starting early next year, two squadrons of the Sukhoi 30’s will move to Halwara airbase, near Ludhiana, located just 150 km from Pakistan. The MI-17-V5, which is the latest version of the MI-17 series choppers, will be based at Suratgarh in Rajasthan from May-June next year. The Mi-35 attack choppers, on their return from UN duties, will also be based there. The first lot will start arriving at the end of this month. Lastly, next year the modernisation of airfield infrastructure programme will be completed in Bathinda, making it the first airfield in the country to be upgraded to that level. In total, 30 out of IAF's 51 operational airbases will be upgraded in Phase-I over 42 months. :hatsoff::hatsoff:

[achilles]

:isalute: