Raja Nahar Singh Faridabad Air Force Logistics Station (RAFLS), the 54 ASP logistics base 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 ...

's Western Air Command (WAC),1980
"Haryana Review"
Volume 14, Page 47. is located at sector-50 of Dabua colony of

Faridabad Faridabad is the most populous city in the Indian state of Haryana and a part of Delhi National Capital Region. It is one of the major satellite cities around Delhi and is located 284 kilometres south of the state capital Chandigarh. The ri ...

city in

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...

state of India. Headed by a Logistics Group Captain, it is home of the Guard Dog Training Unit and the 56th Air Storage Park.2017
Fridabad disaster management plan
Govt of Haryana, p23.13 Nov 2016
Ground Threat for air warriors
Times of India.1991
Sainik Samachar: The Pictorial Weekly of the Armed Forces
p26.

History

On 8 October 1932, the Indian Air Force was established in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

as an auxiliary air force of

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

, and adopted the Royal Air Force uniforms, badges, brevets and insignia. In 1948, first airstrip was built in Haryana when

Ambala Air Force Station Ambala () is a city and a municipal corporation in Ambala district in the state of Haryana, India, located on the border with the Indian state of Punjab and in proximity to both states capital Chandigarh. Politically, Ambala has two sub-area ...

was established following the independence of India. After the independence of India in 1947, an air force logistics base was established at Faridabad. The Western Air Command (WAC), of which Raja Nahar Singh Faridabad Air Force Logistics Station is a key component within the

National Capital Region A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...

, has been the major operational command involved in most of the war fought by India, including the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947,

Sino-Indian War The Sino-Indian War took place between China and India from October to November 1962, as a major flare-up of the Sino-Indian border dispute. There had been a series of violent border skirmishes between the two countries after the 1959 Tib ...

in 1962, the

Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was d ...

Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 until the Pakistani capitulation in Dhaka on 16 Decemb ...

Operation Pawan Operation Pawan ( hi, कार्यवाही पवन ''Kãryvãhi Pavan'', lit. "Operation Wind") was the code name assigned to the operation by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to take control of Jaffna from the Liberation Tigers of ...

(1986) in Sri Lanka and

Operation Safed Sagar Operation Safed Sagar ( hi, ऑपरेशन सफेद सागर, lit. "Operation White Ocean") was the code name assigned to the Indian Air Force's role in acting jointly with the Indian Army during the 1999 Kargil war that was aim ...

during the 1999

Kargil War The Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict, was fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LoC). In India, the conflict is also referr ...

, and the ongoing air logistics operations to supply troops deployed at

Siachen Glacier The Siachen Glacier is a glacier located in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalayas at about , just northeast of the point NJ9842 where the Line of Control between India and Pakistan ends. At long, it is the longest glacier in the Kar ...

Facilities

This facility is headed by an Indian Air Force Officer of

Group Captain Group captain is a senior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force, where it originated, as well as the air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. It is sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank i ...

rank from the Air Force Logistics

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

. It has a

Guard Dog A guard dog or watchdog (not to be confused with an attack dog) is a dog used to watch for and guard property against unwanted or unexpected human or animal intruders. The dog is discerning so that it does not annoy or attack the resident hum ...

Training Unit The Training Unit () is a semi-open, low security prison located on the grounds of the Mountjoy campus in Dublin 7. It receives prisoners eighteen years of age and over and is designed to provide industrial training to inmates prior to the relea ...

and the 56th Air Storage Park. The operations at Commands are supported by the technical and logistics wing at the Command and units level, and logistics wing is responsible for ensuring the supply and storage of spares and consumables.IAF Manual, p.14.
/ref> Air force logistics is challenging task due to the geographical diversity of weapon system sites and technological diversity of weapon systems and spares, high costs, and high lead times of military aviation equipments. In addition to this logistics base at Dauba, IAF also has two firing range (AFRU - Air Force Range Unit), range 1 and range 2, at

Tilpat Tilpat is a census town in Faridabad district in the Indian state of Haryana that comes under the Capital Region. It is famous for the revolt against Mughals. It also has the Tilpat 1 & 2 ranges of Indian Air Force on the banks of Yamuna.

within Faridabad.

Issues

Illegal private construction

The 100 metres land around the air force stations and 900 meters around the ammunition depot is a protected zone where construction is not permitted as per the law. People mostly of lower middle class bought land near this station and constructed houses, neither the Air Force Station nor the local authorities objected earlier. It came into picture after PIL filed in High Court,more than 10000 houses and around 1L people living here, but govt data claims only 250 structures. In 2010, a

public interest litigation The chief instrument through which judicial activism has flourished in India is public interest litigation (PIL) or social action litigation (SAL). ''Public interest litigation'' (PIL) refers to litigation undertaken to secure public interest and de ...

(PIL) was filed in the

Punjab and Haryana High Court Punjab and Haryana High Court is the common High Court for the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh based in Chandigarh, India. Sanctioned strength of Judges of this High Court is 85 consisting of 64 Per ...

to have these illegal structures removed. The local Municipal Corporation of Faridabad stopped providing proper roads and drainage facilities after this PIL, but the Court never gave order to stop providing basic amenities to the houses constructed in this area.6k structures in buffer area of IAF ammo depot in Gurgaon to be sealed
Times of India, 12 Dec 2017.'No extension for objections over removal of encroachments
Times of India, 13 Jun 2018.

Illegal sand mining

In May 2018,

Delhi High Court The High Court of Delhi (IAST: ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966'', with four judges, Chief Justice K. S. Hegde, Justice I. D. Dua, Justice H. R. Khanna and Justice S. ...

asked the government to ensure to protect the

1 & 2 ranges of IAF on the banks of

Yamuna The Yamuna (Hindustani language, Hindustani: ), also spelt Jumna, is the second-largest tributary river of the Ganges by discharge and the longest tributary in List of major rivers of India, India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a ...

river from the

illegal sand mining Sand theft or unauthorised or illegal sand mining leads to a widely unknown global example of natural and non-renewable resource depletion problem comparable in extent to global water scarcity. Beach theft is illegal removal of large quantities ...

.Is IAF protecting its land on Yamuna banks from sand mining: Delhi HC asks
Indian Express, 17 May 2018.

References

External links

Official website of The Indian Air Force

Indian Air Force on bharat-rakshak.com

Designators Batches of Indian Air Force

Career Air Force Government of India
{{Authority control Indian Air Force bases Faridabad district