Asean flag to be seen in flypast, indigenous eye in sky to make debut at R-Day

The flag of Asean would fly in the sky this Republic Day with Mi-17 V5 helicopters, the first in the fly past on January 26, sporting the standard of the regional intergovernmental organisation along with the Indian flag and flags of the three forces.

The first formation in the R-Day parade will be an "Ensign" formation with five Mi-17 V5 choppers. The first chopper would fly the national flag, followed by the second one which will have the ASEAN flag, tailed by three more with the flags of Army, Navy and Air Force.

The fly past at the Republic Day parade this year will have 38 aircraft participating, against 35 last year. It will include four Dhruv helicopters of Army Aviation Corps.

For the first time, the indigenous 'eye in the sky', indigenous Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&C) 'Netra' will fly over the Rajpath.

The AEW&C, which is mounted on a Brazilian Embraer jet, will be flanked by two Su-30 fighter jets.

The flypast will altogether have 21 fighter jets, 12 helicopters and five transport aircraft.

These will include the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, frontline fighter Su-30, upgraded Mig-29s, and Jaguar fighter jets, Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv, its attack version Rudra, and Mi-17 choppers, and transport aircraft C-17 Globemaster and Hercules C-130J.

A tableau of the Indian Air Force (IAF), themed on 'encouraging indigenisation' will meanwhile focus on Make in India, and will have on display scaled down models of LCA Tejas, Rudra helicopter, Akash missile system, and Arudhra radar.

A tableau on veterans of the forces will meanwhile have a statue of Marshal of Air Force Arjan Singh, who passed away on September 16, 2017.

--IANS

ao/vd