Tag: central armed police forces

The South Western Air Command is one of the five operational commands of the Indian Air Force. It was raised in Jodhpur in July 1980 from the No. 1 Operations group of the Western Air Command. Its operations sector includes most of Rajasthan, through Gujarat and Saurashtra, as far south as Kutch and Pune. The SWAC moved to its current headquarters in Gandhinagar in May 1998 and incorporates the Indian airbases of Bhuj, Jaisalmer, Naliva, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Uttarlai/Barmer and Pune.

INS Arihant is the lead ship of India's Arihant class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines.  The 6,000-tonne vessel was built under the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project at the Ship Building Centre in the port city of Visakhapatnam. 

Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, popularly known as Sam Bahadur ("Sam the Brave"), was the Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 and was subsequently the first Indian Army officer to be promoted to the rank of field marshal. His distinguished military career spanned four decades and five wars, beginning with service in the British Indian Army in World War II. 

INS Vikramaditya is a modified kiev-class aircraft carrier which entered into service with the Indian Navy in 2013. She has been renamed in honor of Vikramaditya, a legendary emperor of Ujjain.

Originally built as Baku and commissioned in 1987, the carrier served with the Soviet and later with the Russian Navies (as Admiral Gorshkov) before being decommissioned in 1996 as she was too expensive to operate on a post-Cold War budget. The carrier was purchased by India on 20 January 2004 after years of negotiations at a final price of $2.35 billion. The ship successfully completed her sea trials in July 2013 and aviation trials in September 2013.

The home base of the aircraft carries Indian Naval Ship (INS) Vikramaditya is Karwar, Karnataka. Its home port is INS Kadamba, Karwar, Karnataka. INS Vikramaditya joined Indian Navy in Nov 2013. It is the largest and newest ship of the Indian Navy.

On 1 April 1933, the first unit of the Indian Air Force was formed at Drigh Road, Karachi with a compliment of four Westland Wapiti aircraft. The single flight expanded into two, then three flights to become a full fledged squadron. Over the course of the decade, several Wapitis passed through its hands. The advent of the Second World War saw the setting up of training facilities for Indian pilots, and the raising of several flights - for Coastal Defence and for Anti-Aircraft Co-operation. By the time the last of the Westland Wapitis stopped flying in 1943,  67 Wapitis had passed through the hands of the IAF and training units.

Major Somnath Sharma, PVC,  an Indian Army officer, was the first recipient of theParam Vir Chakra (PVC), India's highest military decoration. He was awarded it posthumously for his bravery in the Kashmir operations of November 1947. He died while evicting Pakistani infiltrators and raiders from Srinagar Airport  during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1947 in Kashmir. He served in the 4th Kumaon Regiment. 

Colonel in the Indian Army is equivalent to captain in the Indian Navy and group captain in the Indian Air Force. Like other armies, this rank is higher than Lieutenant Colonel and lower than a Brigadier.

The Ilyushin IL-78 air-to-air refueling tanker aircraft is a four-engine tanker principally used for in-flight refueling. It was designed and developed on the basis of a similar predecessor, the IL-76, and has the Nato reporting name Midas. The maiden flight of IL-78 took place on 26 June 1983 and the aircraft entered into service in 1984. About 53 aircrafts are currently operational worldwide.