Wings Of Support: The Indian Air Force’s Unflappable Transport Fleet

It’s often the less-talked-about wing of the air force but one that does all the heavy lifting, literally.

Be it moving people out of war zones, carrying equipment and soldiers to difficult terrains or giving pace to soft diplomacy, the transport fleet of the Indian Air Force has done it all. It has served as the backbone of countless military and humanitarian operations, away from the limelight.

And chronicling all that is a book called ‘Wings of Support: Nine Decades of Action by Transport Fleet of IAF’.

Speaking to Bharat Shakti Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale, the book’s author, Air Marshal Rajeev Sachdeva (Retd), traces the IAF transport fleet’s early journey in the 1930s to modern-day strategic airlift missions.

Mentioning a defining moment soon after India’s independence, Sachdeva recalls how IAF’s Dakota aircraft airlifted army personnel to Srinagar after Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India, and the former princely state’s ruler Hari Singh sought India’s help to counter Pakistani raiders.

It was a major operation, says Sachdeva. “Else, the India from Kashmir to Kanyakumari that we not talk of may well have been from Pathankot to Kanyakumari.”

The transport fleet’s capabilities have expanded by leaps and bounds over the years. From carrying 30 tonnes of cargo in the early years, the Indian Air Force can now airlift nearly 3,000 tonnes using aircraft such as C-17 Globemaster III, C-130J Super Hercules, IL-76 and AN-32.

In 2020, during the conflict with China along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh, the transport fleet moved both men and machines to high-altitude, inhospitable terrains at an enviable pace.

Beyond wartime operations, the IAF’s transport aircraft have played a crucial role in humanitarian missions. That includes evacuations from conflict zones such as Sudan and Afghanistan, airlifting people from Wuhan during the Covid-19 outbreak, and delivering vaccines and relief supplies worldwide.

Tune in to this conversation with Air Marshal Rajeev Sachdeva (Retd) for more.