The No. 45 Squadron of the Indian Air Force (IAF), also known as ‘Flying Daggers’, based at Air Force Station, Sulur, here celebrated its Diamond Jubilee on Saturday.
Formed on November 20, 1959 at Palam, Delhi, with British-made de Havilland Vampire fighter aircraft, Flying Daggers now operates indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, a multi-role fighter.
Air Marshal H.S. Arora, AVSM ADC, Vice Chief of Air Staff; Air Marshal Amit Tiwari, AVSM VM, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Southern Air Command; Air Marshal S. Prabhakaran, VM, Senior Air Staff Officer, South Western Air Command, Commodore Commandant 45 Squadron; senior serving officers and veterans of the squadron took part in the celebrations.
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Air Marshal Arora was the Commanding Officer of the squadron from February 1, 2000 to December 1, 2002.
In 1961, Flying Daggers took part in operations towards Liberation of Goa. During the Indo-Pak war of 1965, it destroyed 10 Patton tanks and many armoured vehicles on the very first day of its participation. It was equipped with MiG-21 FL fighter aircraft in 1966 and re-equipped with MiG-21 Bison in 1981.
In the war of 1971, the squadron flown 258 missions. It shot down an intruding Pakistan Navy Atlantique aircraft in Kutch sector on 10 August, 1999.
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Flying Daggers is now operationalising Tejas as a frontline fighter aircraft of the IAF.