"Operation Sagar Bandhu ' Humanitarian Assistance. In the wake of the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah across Sri Lanka, India swiftly launched Operation Sagar Bandhu to bolster relief efforts," the Indian Air Force said in a post on X on Saturday.
'Why are IPKF martyrs not being officially recognised and appropriately honoured? And is the government really changing its mind on this now?', asks Aditi Phadnis.
The Indian Air Force has stepped up its efforts to assist Sri Lanka in the wake of Cyclone Ditwah, deploying aircraft and helicopters for relief operations and evacuation of stranded citizens under Operation Sagar Bandhu.
If Lockheed Martin gets the opportunity, then it will set up a mega hub in India to produce the "iconic" aircraft and it will be the first such global facility outside of the US, top officials of the company told PTI.
Lockheed Martin plans to establish a C-130J Super Hercules co-production facility in India, the first outside the US, as the IAF seeks to procure new transport aircraft.
Sri Lanka continues relief and rescue efforts with India's assistance after Cyclone Ditwah caused widespread devastation, killing over 190 people and affecting nearly a million.
Cyclone Ditwah exits Sri Lanka after causing widespread destruction and over 120 deaths, heading towards the Indian coast. Heavy rains and high winds are expected to continue.
Notably, Siachen is the highest battlefield of the world, which sits on the nuclear tri-junction of India, Pakistan and China.
India may have created history by inducting its first Airborne Warning and Control System in New Delhi on Thursday but the IAF is planning to replace the Russian IL-76 aircraft with some other 'modern aircraft' as the platform for the system in future.
After a London-bound Air India aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport on Thursday, the spotlight is back on India's history with aviation disasters.
Since the IPKF's withdrawal from Sri Lanka in March 1990, the LTTE's once-powerful influence in Tamil Nadu has faded.
Operation Meghdoot was launched on April 13, 1984, when the Indian Army and IAF advanced to the Siachen Glacier to secure the heights dominating the northern Ladakh region
Officials said that Moscow has dispatched a panel of inquiry to probe into the incident.
For India, it is a symbol of will and a successful feat of arms.
Several aircraft such as Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, Sukhoi, Jaguar, Rafale, IL-76, C-130J, and Hawk displayed their skillful manoeuvres, amid a thundering applause from the gathering.
As part of the operation, C-17 and IL-76 aircraft of the IAF airlifted two empty cryogenic oxygen containers and one IL-76 aircraft airlifted one empty container to Panagarhon Thursday, said the IAF.
The Indian Air Force is expected to fly an IL-76 aircraft, which can ferry 300 people, to Libya on Thursday to evacuate Indian citizens stranded there. "An IL-76 is at the Palam airport and is expected to fly out to Cairo on Thursday morning on its way to Libya," IAF officials said. However, the destination of the aircraft is not being disclosed keeping in mind the safety of the evacuees, they added.
A Korean couple and a retired Army Major General were among 310 people rescued by Chandigarh-based 12 Wing of the Indian Air Force, which has been conducting non-stop sorties during the past three days to evacuate people from flooded areas of Srinagar.
Continuing its aid to cyclone-affected Myanmar and quake-hit China, India will fly out three aircraft with relief materials to the two neighbouring countries this week. An Indian Air Force's heavylift fixed wing IL-76 aircraft will leave for Yangon on Wednesday. This will be the sixth IL-76 flight to Myanmar.Till date, the IAF has flown over 15 mercy missions and carried over 300 tonnes of medicines, tents, water, wheelchairs, portable houses and other relief material.
"At 0943 Hours, an IL-76 of the IAF air-lifted 124 of the troops to Mumbai. The operational commanders on ground felt that more troops would be required to complete the operation," a Defence Ministry source told PTI in New Delhi on Friday.
With tens of thousands of quake affected people in China's southwest Sichuan province rendered homeless, Beijing has asked New Delhi to rush more tents and portable shelters for the victims.
The aircraft C-130J landed in new Delhi with 55 Indian evacuees at around 10.45 pm.
The proposals will help in the modernisation of the armed forces.
With the Maldives facing a national crisis after a fire in its capital's lone water treatment plant, India on Friday sent nearly 200 tons of water by air and dispatched a naval vessel carrying a large consignment of water and RO facility to the island nation.
"Our primary focus is to get Indian students out of conflict zones in eastern Ukraine," the MEA spokesperson said.
The cause of the crash was unclear and an investigation has been opened.
The disengagement process between India and China in eastern Ladakh is in final stages and on the brink of completion, top officials of the country's defence establishment on Thursday told a parliamentary panel during a meeting, which sources said turned 'stormy' amid several questions asked by opposition members including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
A business jet carrying Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was forced to make a go-around while landing recently at Delhi airport as an IAF aircraft had still not cleared the runway, airport sources said on Thursday.
Coming to the rescue of stranded passengers in Jammu and Ladakh regions, India Air Force on Tuesday airlifted 203 stranded people from Leh town to Jammu.
the Indian pilots will be trained to act correctly in case of abnormal landing of the manned spaceship descent module in various climate and geographic zones.
An IL-76 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force was pressed into service to ferry the stranded passengers mostly hailing from Leh and Kargil districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
An Indian Navy vessel and an Air Force aircraft carrying nearly 1,000 tons of fresh water reached Male on Sunday as India mounted a major effort to help the Maldivian capital that is reeling from an acute shortage of drinking water after its lone desalination plant caught fire.
Russia has promised all possible support to Pakistan in dealing with catastrophic floods, even as the second Russian Il-76 cargo plane with emergency relief is scheduled to land in Islamabad on Thursday.
Indian Air Force and the army flew 2,223 sorties, shifted about 11,200 people to safer places and transported and dropped about 1,700 tonnes of relief material.
Six Indian Air Force aircraft carrying relief material, rescue workers and doctors landed in Leh on Saturday to provide succour to the people of the region affected by cloudburst and flash floods.
Dutt, along with about 200 'black cats' commandos, had boarded an IL-76 aircraft of the Aviation Research Centre (ARC) to fly the first batch of the counter-terrorist strike force to Mumbai soon after the western metropolis reported multiple shootouts and public killings in the night of November 26, 2008.
A Russian cargo plane crashed in a fireball into a naval residential compound seconds after taking off from the airport of the southern Pakistani city on Sunday, killing at least 11 people--all eight crew members on board and three persons on the ground.
An IAF IL-76 plane carried the first consignment of tents, cutting machines, blankets, water purifiers, generators and other relief material to Chengdu, capital of worst-hit Sichuan Province on Saturday afternoon. The 36-tonne consignment, part of the $5 million humanitarian assistance pledged by India, was transfered to the affected areas immediately after its arrival, the Indian Embassy said in Beijing.
The Armed Forces have swung in to action to extend a helping hand to the civil administration in dealing with the situation emerging out of Cyclone Laila. With the severe storm crossing the coast, the Indian Army has moved three columns, each comprising 96 men, including doctors, from Hyderabad to the coastal districts.
A five-day joint exercise involving the Indian Air Force and the United States Air Force transport aircraft, Cope India-09, will be held at Agra from October 19.
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