Charbatia Air Base is located approximately 12 km north of

Cuttack Cuttack (, or officially Kataka ) in Odia is the former capital and the second largest city in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the headquarters of the Cuttack district. The name of the city is an anglicised form of ''Kataka'' which literally ...

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

in eastern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is an

aerial reconnaissance Aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance for a military or strategic purpose that is conducted using reconnaissance aircraft. The role of reconnaissance can fulfil a variety of requirements including artillery spotting, the collection of i ...

post of the intelligence agency's aviation unit, the

Aviation Research Centre The Aviation Research Centre (ARC) is India's imagery intelligence organisation, a part of the Directorate General of Security, run by the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). It started functioning in November 1962, in the wake of the Sino-In ...

(ARC). The Research and Analysis Wing, India's primary foreign intelligence agency, operates intelligence collection aircraft through the ARC. The aircraft are fitted with electronic surveillance equipment and long range cameras capable of taking pictures of targets from high altitudes. The airstrip was built by the British during the World War II and was abandoned post war. The base was later built with the assistance of the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

in the early 1960s and developed through till 1990s, was used for aerial surveillance and intelligence gathering of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

and China's strategic forces. The first aircraft was delivered in the mid 60s and was a World War II vintage C-46 which was outfitted with an oxygen distribution system for operator and flight personnel along with surveillance electronics and recording equipment at the Air America base in Tainan, Taiwan. The installation was supervised by the design engineer, Mr. Kent Williamson. Mr. Williamson, along with other experienced personnel also deployed to Charbatia to train the first operator and maintenance personnel. Later additions to the surveillance equipment include specially outfitted

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airpo ...

and

Gulfstream III The Gulfstream III, a business jet produced by Gulfstream Aerospace, is an improved variant of the Grumman Gulfstream II. Design and development The Gulfstream III was built at Savannah, Georgia, in the United States and was designed as an i ...

jets. The air base is spread over . In 2011, the Government of India which controls the airbase announced that it will be converted into a full-fledged Indian Air Force station with six

C-130J Super Hercules The Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. The C-130J is a comprehensive update of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, with new engines, flight deck, and other systems. The C-130J is the newest v ...

transport aircraft. But the plans for setting up such a station was subsequently cancelled and the C-130 Hercules transport unit was shifted to Panagarh in West Bengal.

References

Transport in Cuttack Indian Air Force bases Airports in Odisha Research and Analysis Wing Aerial reconnaissance 1940s establishments in Orissa Military airbases established in the 1940s Airports with year of establishment missing 20th-century architecture in India {{mil-aviation-stub