No. 45 Squadron Indian Air Force (''Flying Daggers'') is a Fighter Squadron internally based at Sulur AFS,

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

. The squadron operates the indigenous HAL Tejas fighter from 1 July 2016. The squadron was initially based at

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

and later shifted to its main base in Sulur from 1 June 2018.

History

The squadron was raised on 15 February 1957, with

de Havilland Vampire The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet fighter to be operated by the RAF, after the Gloster Meteor, and the first to be powered by ...

s, as a Ground-Attack and Close Air Support unit. Later The Vampires were replaced by MiG-21Bison. The MiGs which were operated from Naliya were withdrawn from squadron service in 2002. It is the first operational squadron of the indigenous fighter jet HAL Tejas. The squadron operated from

HAL Airport HAL Airport is an airport that serves Bangalore, the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Located about 12 km east of the city centre, it has one runway and operates 24/7. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), a state-owned defence company ...

, Bangalore for nearly two years before it moved to its designated locations at Sulur near Coimbatore. It is also the first fighter squadron to be part of the Southern Air Command of IAF headquarters at Thiruvananthapuram. Group Captain Madhav Rangachari is the first commanding officer and Sqn Ldr Devdeep Ghosh is the first squadron doctor of the Tejas squadron.

Indo-Pakistan War of 1965

On 1 September 1965, during the Indo-Pakistani War, No. 45 Squadron IAF responded to a request for strikes against a counter-attack by the Pakistan Army (

Operation Grand Slam Operation Grand Slam was a key military operation of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. It refers to a plan drawn up by the Pakistan Army in May 1965 that consisted of an attack on the vital Akhnoor Bridge in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashm ...

), and twelve Vampire Mk 52 fighter-bombers were successful in slowing the Pakistani advance. However, the Vampires encountered two PAF F-86 Sabres, in the ensuing

dogfight A dogfight, or dog fight, is an aerial battle between fighter aircraft conducted at close range. Dogfighting first occurred in Mexico in 1913, shortly after the invention of the airplane. Until at least 1992, it was a component in every majo ...

, the outdated Vampires were outclassed. One was shot down by ground fire and another three were shot down by Sabres. The Vampires were withdrawn from front line service after these losses.

Atlantique incident

Indian Air Force ''No.45 Squadron'' was involved in the

Atlantique incident Pakistan Navy Atlantic shootdown happened on 10 August 1999, when a Breguet Atlantic maritime patrol aircraft of the Pakistan Naval Air Arm was shot down by a MiG 21 fighter of the Indian Air Force over the Rann of Kutch, on the border between ...

on 10 August 1999. Two MiG-21 Bison from ''No.45 Squadron IAF'' intercepted and shot down a

Pakistan Air Force , "Be it deserts or seas; all lie under our wings" (traditional) , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = ...

naval reconnaissance plane.

Assignments

* Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 *

Aircraft

Aircraft types operated by the squadron The squadron has 16 Tejas aircraft in currently in service.

Gallery

References

{{Indian Air Force 45