Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari spoke to WION on situation in Indo-Pacific, northern and western borders, as well as ties with Russia, US, France, Australia, West Asia; and humanitarian rescue missions. The air chief marshal took a sortie in the Sukhoi Su-30MKI aircraft at Air Force station Adampur in Punjab.
Asked by WION’s principal diplomatic correspondent Sidhant Sibal on the rollout of humanitarian exercises in terms of their risk-prone nature, air chief marshal said: “IAF have always been the first respondents to any crisis across the globe. In the past many years, we have developed our skill level and training level to execute such operations. There missions were fought with a lot of uncertainties and danger. But our trained crew and commandos forces which went along with these aircraft’s ensured these missions were executed flawlessly.”
“It required a lot of teamwork and this is precisely what we go through on our daily basis in Air Force. We are always preparing for such conditions that may arise anywhere across the globe. Recently, along with Indian Navy we carried out an operation of dropping speed boats from C-17 aircraft. So the kind of roles and missions we’re expected to do can vary… but with a lot of confidence we are capable of pulling out any operation that comes our way.”
Speaking about Operation Devi Shakti, that the Indian Air Force undertook in 2021 to rescue Indians and Afghan minorities stuck in Kabul after Taliban’s takeover, the IAF chief described the operation as “pinnacle of transport operations”.
Also watch | WION ground report from inside Kabul airport
A total of 168 people, including 107 Indians and 23 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, were flown from Kabul to Hindan Air Force Station near Delhi in a C-17 Globemaster III heavy-lift military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force on August 24, 2021.
“It was a time when there was no air traffic control over Kabul. The entire airspace was uncontrolled airspace. We had to launch an aircraft which could take the role of an airborne air traffic control. There was no ground control. We had to land our special forces first which had to secure the area around the aircraft. We managed to put in as many Indian nationals as we could in each of these planes and one of the interesting things were we took off in absolute pitch darkness using night vision goggles in an uncontrolled airspace. This is the pinnacle of transport operations,” the IAF chief told WION.
