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Fighter Jets Over The Ganges As India’s Air Force Turns 94

Edited by IndianRepublic.in - Location: Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

The aircraft came in low from the left, over the point where the Varuna meets the Ganga, turned above the water in front of the crowd and went out to the right towards the bridge and the spires of the Kashi Vishwanath temple

Image Via:@myogiadityanath on X
The Indian Air Force marked its 94th anniversary with a display at Namo Ghat in Varanasi, the city Prime Minister Narendra Modi represents in parliament. He watched from the main gallery with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the state governor Anandiben Patel and the chief minister Yogi Adityanath. The air chief presented him with a memento before the flying began.

Around a hundred aircraft took part, and almost every formation was named for Shiva or for the river. Omkar opened it, three Mi-17 helicopters carrying the national flag. Ganga followed, three Chetaks in line astern, scattering flower petals over the water. Then Bhagirathi, a diamond of Prachand and Apache attack helicopters; Alkananda, an inverted V of Chinooks and advanced light helicopters; Bhairav, named for the guardian of the city, flying transport aircraft; Kailash, Trilochan, Nataraj, Mahadev, Vishwanath, Pashupati, Neelkanth.

A Chinook held station long enough to unroll the number 94 from its rear ramp.

The hardware ran from the Soviet to the very new: MiG-29s and An-32s alongside Rafales, Su-30MKIs, an airborne early warning aircraft and an IL-78 tanker trailing Mirage 2000s to show the force’s reach. One Su-30 flew a photography pass with an electro-optical pod, a reconnaissance capability rather than a trick. A tri-service formation brought together a navy Kamov with air force and army helicopters. The weapons each aircraft carries were read out as they passed.

The crowd got a staged dogfight, two Jaguars playing an enemy run at a bridge and two Sukhois breaking it up.

The craft, though, belonged to the Tejas. India’s home-built light fighter took the sky alone and worked through a sequence that is far harder than it looks from a riverbank — a four-point roll counted aloud by the commentator, a vertical pitch back, a maximum-rate turn, a red-eye turn, a vertical Charlie climb, a Formula One turn, and then a slow march, the aircraft holding controlled flight at low speed. It left inverted, rolling upside down across the ghats in what the commentary called a Spiderman farewell, the pilot waving at a crowd waving back.

The Surya Kiran team closed the display, nine Hawk trainers built in India, flying the shapes an aerobatic team exists to fly: a flower, a barrel roll, the letter A, a double helix the team calls the DNA after its motto, always the best. They drew a heart in smoke over the city. One of the nine pilots is from Varanasi.

The last formation of the afternoon was a C-17 Globemaster flanked by the Surya Kirans, named Dashashwamedh for the ghat a short distance downstream where the evening aarti is performed.

The air force was founded on 8 October 1932.

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