Deletedid1 Posted October 5, 2010 Report Posted October 5, 2010 The Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Car Nicobar soon will have a full-fledged flight detachment, and a medium power radar (MPR) will be commissioned by 2012.“The MPR will further add teeth to the base,” Wing Cdr. M.S. Sridhar, officiating station commander, tells AVIATION WEEK. “We have a Rohini radar now with limited ground control interception. We will also have an air defense weapons squadron.”The base falls under the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC), which has plans to upgrade the facility so all IAF platforms can operate from here. The site sustained severe damage in the December 2004 tsunami.“We lost close to 130 [people] from IAF during [the] tsunami and we have now completely reconstructed the base,” Sridhar says. “The runway was the key. It acted as the lifeline to people here, and it, too, was redone four months after the tsunami. The base had subsided by 1.2 meters, post-tsunami.”The base’s 151 Sqdn., spread across 509.4 acres, was handed over to the IAF by the U.K.’s Royal Air Force in 1956. The runway is 8,790 ft. long. The base is located 280 km. (174 mi.) from Port Blair.“The 122 HF Helicopter Sqdn. operates the MI-8 choppers. There is a UAV base, which is used for reconnaissance for the southern and northern group of islands,” Sridhar says.The base is strategic for ANC because the major shipping lanes of many countries, including China, pass through the region. The base’s development is is considered key for monitoring the Malacca Straits.A couple of years ago, India’s Defense Research and Development Organization tested the BrahMos supersonic ship-to-ship missile from the Car Nicobar region.
Recommended Posts