Air Chief Marshal reviews preparedness at Western Command frontline base

Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria on Thursday flew a Mig 21 Bison jet at a frontline airbase in the Western Command, and carried out a comprehensive review of the operational preparedness of the air warriors in the region, officials said.

The Indian Air Force has kept almost all its airbases under the Western Command at a "very high level of readiness" in view of the over three-month border row with China in eastern Ladakh.

The Western Command looks after the aerial defence of the sensitive Ladakh sector as well as various other parts of North India.

Officials said Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria reviewed the operational preparedness of the base with senior air warriors after flying a sortie on a Mig 21 Bison.

The Mig-21 Bison is a single-engine and single-seater multirole fighter aircraft of Russian origin which was the backbone of the IAF for several decades. The Mig 21s played a major role in the 1971 Indo-Pak War.

Last week, Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Harjit Singh Arora visited a number of airbases along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh to take stock of the IAF's operational preparedness in the region.

Air Marshal Singh also visited the strategically crucial airbase in Daulat Beg Oldie, known as one of the world's highest airstrip. The airbase is situated at an altitude of 16,600 feet.

In June, Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria made a quiet visit to Ladakh and Srinagar air bases to review the IAF's overall preparedness.

In the last two months, the IAF deployed almost all its frontline fighter jets like Sukhoi 30 MKI, Jaguar and Mirage 2000 aircraft in the key frontier air bases in eastern Ladakh and elsewhere along the LAC.

The IAF has been carrying out night time combat air patrols over the eastern Ladakh region in an apparent message to China that it was ready to deal with any eventualities in the mountainous region.

The IAF has also deployed Apache attack choppers as well as Chinook heavy-lift helicopters to transport troops to various forward locations in eastern Ladakh.