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Flying officer Nirmal jit Singh Sekhon is the only member of IAF to have been awarded the Param Vir Chakra (PVC), India's highest military decoration. Flying officer Nirmal jit singh sekhon was a pilot of Folland Gnat Detachment based at Srinagar for the air defence. Flying officer Sekhon was therefore, unfamiliar with the terrain and was not acclimatised to the altitude of Srinagar especially wi th the bitter cold and biting winds of the kashmir winter. Nevertheless, from the setout of the war, he and his colleagues fought successive waves of intruding pakistani aircraft with valour and determination, maintaining the high reputation of the Folland Gnat aircraft.  On 14 december 1971, Srinagar airfield was attacked by a wave of six enemy sabre aircraft. Flying officer Sekhon was on readiness duty at the time.However, he could not take off at once because of the cloud of dust raised by another aircraft which had just taken off. By the time the runway was fit for take-of

A Puff Of Dust India’s collective memory plays strange tricks. British Raj no longer evokes outrage or indignation in India, within a few decades after the end of colonial rule. The same British Raj, who were overseers of India’s rapid decline from the richest economy to the poorest in a short span of 100 years. Britain’s rapid decline after the loss of India rarely registers on Indian minds. Inspite of a nuclear neighbourhood, defence issues are not electoral hot-buttons in India’s mind-scape. China and Pakistan apart, the three other nuclear powers, (USA, Britain, France) also have military presence in India’s immediate vicinity. In India’s collective memory, its remarkable rise from the Great Bengal Famine of 1941 to overflowing food godowns in 2011 is lost in the media  din and NGO activism . But then, this par for the course, for  a society that keeps re-indexing  even heroes like Raghu Ramachandra and Yadu Krishna. Walk The Talk … 65 years later, after the end of c

At last after 27 years the day has come for the first 4 th  generation fighter aircraft to get the Initial Operation Clearance(IOC) i.e., now the aircraft can be inducted into the IAF. Wow, my country has done it Im proud. But I cant take much pride from it,because though the aerial design,aerodynamics,integration,manufacturing has been done in INDIA, the sad truth is that some of the core and integral parts of an aircraft like the engine, radars, weaponries all are made in other countries.This includes the engine from the General Electrics,Radars from israel, Integration of all weaponries and control systems  from the British and Italy helping in the composite skins for the wings. Having said all those things,still it is an remarkable achievement, considering the fact that our INDIA got independence only in the late 1940′s ,when most of the western nations developed and used fighter aircrafts for war.The layout for the project was started way back in 1983,but due to lack in i

India's heaviest satellite successfully launched. India's advanced communication satellite GSAT-10 was successfully launched today on board Ariane-5 rocket from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana. GSAT-10, with a design life of 15 years, is expected to be operational by November and will augment telecommunication, Direct-To-Home and radio navigation services. At 3,400 kg during lift-off, GSAT-10 is the heaviest satellite built by the Bangalore-headquartered Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was ISRO's 101st space mission.GSAT-10 is fitted with 30 transponders (12 Ku-band, 12 C-band and six Extended C-Band), which will provide vital augmentation to INSAT/GSAT transponder capacity. It also has a navigation payload - GAGAN (GPS aided Geo Augmented Navigation) - that would provide improved accuracy of GPS signals (of better than seven metres) to be used by Airports Authority of India for civil aviation requirements. This is the second satellite in INSAT/G

Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon,was born on 17 July 1943, in Ludhiana, Punjab. During the 1971 Indo-Pak War, Fg. Off. Sekhon was with No.18 Flying Bullets Squadron flying the Gnat fighter based at Srinagar. Early morning on 14 December 1971, Srinagar airfield was attacked by a wave of six enemy F-86 Sabre aircraft.Nevertheless, in-spite of the mortal danger of attempting to take off during  an attack, and in-spite of the odds against him, he took off and immediately engaged a pair of the attacking Sabres. He succeeded in damaging two of the enemy aircraft.In the fight that followed, at tree top height, he all but held his own, but was eventually overcome by sheer weight of numbers. His aircraft crashed and he was killed. For bravery, flying skill and determination displayed by Flying Officer Sekhon he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra(P).

India to spend Rs 2 lakh crore over 10 years to boost airpower India will spend over Rs 2 lakh crore (upwards of $35 billion) over the next 10 years to boost its air combat power to counter any threats to its territorial integrity as well as protect its expanding geopolitical interests. While IAF's acquisition programmes have been well-documented — ranging from 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) to over 200 futuristic 5th generation stealth fighters — the deputy chief of air staff Air Marshal R K Sharma.

Nearly 120 of the Indian Air Force jets are being modernized The Indian Air Force (IAF) has lit the afterburners to make its Jaguars fighting fit for modern warfare and increase their service life. The Jaguars, the only aircraft with the IAF capable of carrying nuclear weapons other than the Mirage-2000s, are being fitted with autopilots, next generation avionics and lethal armaments under an ambitious modernisation programme that will see the fighters flying well after 2030. Nearly 120 Jaguars are being modernised. So far, the IAF has procured autopilots for 55 Jaguars and talks for 95 more, which includes spare autopilots, are underway, according to information shared by the government in Parliament. The upgradation of the Ambala-based fighter jets, in service for more than four decades, is being carried out by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) at a cost of more than Rs 3,000 crore. Autopilots would lessen pilot workload, freeing them from physically flying the jet

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