The INAS 300 is the longest serving combat unit of the Indian Navy, based at

INS Hansa INS Hansa, is an Indian naval air station located near Dabolim in Goa, India. Data current as of October 2006. It is India's biggest naval airbase. The military air base has a civil enclave, that operates as Dabolim Airport. History ''INS Ha ...

History

The White Tigers were commissioned on 7 July 1959 at

RNAS Brawdy The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

with the Indian High Commissioner to UK, Vijay Laxmi Pandit, in attendance. The first Squadron Commander was Lt Cdr B D Law. The squadron was initially equipped with the

Hawker Sea Hawk The Hawker Sea Hawk is a British single-seat jet day fighter formerly of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), the air branch of the Royal Navy (RN), built by Hawker Aircraft and its sister company, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. Although its design origina ...

aircraft. On 18 May 1961, Lt Cdr

R. H. Tahiliani Admiral Radhakrishna Hariram Tahiliani, PVSM, AVSM (12 May 1930 – 14 October 2015) was a Flag officer in the Indian Navy. He served as the 12th Chief of the Naval Staff from 1 December 1984 until 30 November 1987. His prior commands included ...

carried out the first deck landing on on Sea Hawk IN 156. The squadron left

on 31 July 1961 with eleven

s and embarked off the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

. During the course of the next ten years the Indian Navy inducted fifty-four Sea Hawks in a phased manner, the last aircraft being delivered in December 1971. The Sea Hawks were retired from the Indian Navy in a phased manner in the late-70s and early-80s. The Sea Harriers were replaced by MiG-29KUBs on 11 May 2016 in a ceremony held at

. File:The outgoing Sea Harriers being flanked by the newly inducted MiG 29Ks fighters of the Indian Navy.jpg, A Sea Harrier flanked by a pair of MiG-29Ks File:Inas 300.jpg, Plaque commemorating the retirement of the Sea Harrier File:Stamp of India - 2010 - Colnect 259588 - Indian Naval Air Squadron 300 50 Years 1960-2010.jpeg, ''50 years of INAS 300'' postal stamp (2010)

References

Aircraft squadrons of the Indian Navy Naval units and formations of India {{India-mil-stub