No.109 Helicopter Unit (''Knights'') is a squadron of the
Indian Air Force
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial w ...
. Raised on August 26, 1961 equipped with
Mi 4s, it later converted to
Mi 8s in 1974, which were further replaced by
Mi-17 V5 in 2016.
Based at
Sulur Air Force Station
Sulur Air Force Station is an air base of the Indian Air Force located at Sulur near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu and is India's second largest air base after Hindon AFS. It is the base which is responsible for protection of India's sea area. It is ...
,
it currently forms a part of the
Southern Air Command.
[Dutch Aviation Society. OrBat of the Indian Air Force]
Since its raising, No. 109 HU has been involved in almost all major military operations, flying in support of
Indian Army right from the
1962 conflict with China, to supporting
IPKF operations against the
LTTE
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...
in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
in 1987.
[No. 109 Helicopter Unit. Indian Air Force]
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Crest
No 109 HU has, as its emblem, a tribladed rotary on the backdrop of the Himalayan mountains. Below this crest, the words ''Apatsu Mitram'' ( Sanskrit- Friend in need), are inscribed upon a scroll in Devnagari.[
]
History
1962 Sino Indian War
No 109 HU had been thrust into action right from the moment of its birth when, in 1962, the Sino-Indian War Broke out. The unit maintained a two aircraft detachment under the Eastern Air Command, which served extensively in CASEVAC and logistics missions in and around the Spiti Valley.[ in face of extremes of conditions and harshest of terrains.
Following the war, 109 was deployed in a number of different roles, from supporting the Border Roads Development Organisation, in the North East India, to flying in support of disaster relief following the Jagadhri floods in Uttar Pradesh in 1963.
The military role of 109, however, again came into calling when riots broke out in ]Srinagar
Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its natu ...
in January 1964, preluding to the Second Kashmir War.No 109 HU was heavily involved in the tactical airlift of troops and security personnel into the sensitive areas in the valley, and was also heavily involved in reconnaissance and patrol missions.[
]
Assignments
* Sino-Indian War
* Second Kashmir War
* Liberation of Bangladesh, 1971
* Siachen
* Bhopal Disaster relief
* IPKF, Jaffna Helidrop
* IPKF Jaffna Operations
*2015 South Indian floods
The 2015 South India floods resulted from heavy rainfall generated by the annual northeast monsoon in November–December 2015. They affected the Coromandel Coast region of the South Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. More than 500 ...
* Aero India
* Iron Fist (exercise)
References
{{Indian Air Force
109 109 may refer to:
* 109 (number), the integer following 108 and preceding 110
* AD 109, a year of the Julian calendar, in the second century AD
* 109 BC, a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar
* 109 (department store), a department store in Shib ...
Helicopter units and formations
1961 establishments in India
Military units and formations established in 1961