No. 24 Squadron (Hawks) IAF is an Air Defence 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 ...

, operating from Bareilly AFS.

History

The squadron was raised at AFS Chabua on 16 February 1962 as an Air Defence and Reconnaissance unit.

Indo-China War of 1962

During the 1962 Indo-China War, the squadron, equipped with

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, was tasked to fly combat air patrols over Assam. Alongside these, the squadron had to fly recon missions in some of the narrowest and most treacherous valleys in the area, to facilitate the supply drops carried out by

Dakotas The Dakotas is a collective term for the U.S. states of North Dakota and South Dakota. It has been used historically to describe the Dakota Territory, and is still used for the collective heritage, culture, geography, fauna, sociology, econom ...

. The squadron also carried out

COIN A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...

operations in the north-east.

Indo-Pakistan War of 1965

The squadron saw considerable action during this war. It operated from AFS Kalaikhunda, in West Bengal, tasked with providing

close air support In military tactics, close air support (CAS) is defined as air action such as air strikes by fixed or rotary-winged aircraft against hostile targets near friendly forces and require detailed integration of each air mission with fire and moveme ...

to the ground units in the Eastern Sector. It continued for the first few days of the war and then relocated to Barrackpur, from where it launched daylight strikes over vital targets, mostly in hostile weather conditions. During the latter part of the war, the Hawks flew combat air patrol in Gorkhapur Sector.

After the War

After the war, the IAF embarked on its modernisation programme, and the Hawks were chosen to be equipped with

Folland Gnat The Folland Gnat is a British compact swept-wing subsonic fighter aircraft that was developed and produced by Folland Aircraft. Envisioned as an affordable light fighter in contrast to the rising cost and size of typical combat aircraft, it wa ...

s. By the end of 1966, the squadron had achieved total operational capability with Gnats. During this period the squadron pilots and technicians underwent much training and retraining alongside several other squadrons.

Bangladesh Liberation War

In 1971, the Hawks were operating from Tezpur AFS. On 2 December, the squadron received a message to move to Kumbhighram Sector in Assam, to provide combat air support to ground troops in eastern India, against heavily defended positions. Within six days of the war, the squadron had flown several sorties attacking enemy gun positions and vital target systems in

Brahmanbaria Brahmanbaria ( bn, ব্রাহ্মণবাড়িয়া, Brāhmaṇabāṛiẏā) is a city of Bangladesh and the capital of Brahmanbaria Sadar Upazila as well as Brahmanbaria District. It is the second largest city after Cumilla ...

Moulvibazar Moulvibazar ( bn, মৌলভীবাজার) is a town in north-eastern Bangladesh just south of Sylhet. It is the capital of Moulvibazar Sadar Upazila and Moulvibazar District, and is located on the banks of the Manu River, Tripura, Manu R ...

, Munshibazar,

Sylhet Sylhet ( bn, সিলেট) is a metropolitan city in northeastern Bangladesh. It is the administrative seat of the Sylhet Division. Located on the north bank of the Surma River at the eastern tip of Bengal, Sylhet has a subtropical climate an ...

Kulaura Kulaura ( bn, কুলাউড়া) is the biggest upazila (subdistrict) of the Moulvibazar District in north-eastern Bangladesh. The total area of this upazila is 545 km2. Hakaluki Haor, the largest marsh wetland in Sylhet and one of the ...

Narayanganj Narayanganj ( bn, নারায়ণগঞ্জ ''Naraeongônj'') is a city in central Bangladesh. It is in the Narayanganj District, about southeast of the capital city of Dhaka, and has a population of about 2 million. It is the 6th larges ...

, Dolanganj and Mainwati. The squadron was also the first of the IAF to provide air cover to helilift operations.

Recent years

The squadron has been equipped with a variety of aircraft in the past, the most recent being the

Su-30MKI The Sukhoi Su-30MKI (NATO reporting name: Flanker-H) is a twinjet multirole air superiority fighter developed by Russia's Sukhoi and built under licence by India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force (IAF). A variant ...

. In various inter-squadron training exercises, the squadron has won various trophies.

Aircraft

Aircraft types operated by the squadron

Awards

*Nirmal Singh Jamwal, VM (Devotion to Duty) *Umesh Rakhra, VM (Devotion to Duty) *Kothapalli Venkata Rama Raju, VM (Devotion to Duty)

References

{{Indian Air Force

024 4 (four) is a number, numeral (linguistics), numeral and numerical digit, digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is tetraphobia, considered unlucky in many East Asian c ...