The Indian Air Force (IAF) will mark its 90th foundation day on October 8 with the adoption of a new disruptive pattern combat uniform for its personnel.
With digital camouflage pattern, the new IAF uniform will have a different fabric and design, which will be unveiled by the Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal VR Chaudhary at the Air Force Day parade in Chandigarh. Presently, the camouflage uniform is used by the air force for ground duty roles.
“The colours and shades of the new IAF uniform will be a little different, more conducive to the air force’s working environment,” an IAF officer mentioned.
Notably, the new uniform will be somewhat similar to the new digital pattern introduced by the Indian Army in January earlier this year. Specially designed by the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Army’s new combat uniform entails several smart tweaks made to the fabric, the weight, and also the camouflage pattern.The uniform was unveiled at ‘Army Day’, which will be made available in a phased manner to nearly 12 lakh personnel of the Indian Army. Similarly, IAF’s Garud Special Forces also use a digital pattern.
Indian Air Force (IAF) to dazzle sky with 80 aircraft
In a first, the Indian Air force moved out the parade and flypast of Air Force Day from the national capital region to Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh. Preparations are underway by the Indian Air Force Day with combat aircraft, transport planes and helicopters including the Chinook heavy-lift choppers that took part in the dress rehearsal.
Interestingly, as many as 80 fighters, transport aircraft and helicopters will participate in the flypast and demonstration including Rafale, Su-30, Mirage 2000 and other aircrafts in the IAF’s inventory at present except the Avro, Dornier, Chetak and Cheetah.
It is noteworthy that the newly inducted indigenous Light Combat Helicopter ‘Prachand’ will also make its first public appearance in a three aircraft formation. Further, vintage as well as current modern aircraft like the Mi-35, Su-30, Jaguar, Mi-17, Chinook, Apache, Howard and Dakota will display different formations, including Akashganga, Ensign, Eklavya, Trishul, Mehar, Shamsher, Vajra, Sarang and Suryakiran, at the flypast.
Another novel formation is Sekhon, dedicated to the IAF’s sole Param Vir Chakra recipient, Flt Lt Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon. The formation comprises a Rafale, Jaguar, Tejas and Mirage 2000, with the Rafale breaking away in front of the dias and doing a vertical Charlie to symbolise the ‘missing man’.
The Globe formation will include a C-17 Heavy lift aircraft trailed by nine Hawk- 132 jets trained from the Surya Kiran display team and joint aerial maneuvering by a Rafale, Su-39 and Tejas in the Transformer formation are other attractions of the air show. Demonstration by the IAF’s Akash Ganga skydiving team, manoeuvring and underslung operations by Chinook helicopter, flypast by Harvard and Dakota vintage aircraft will also be the part of flypast.