KOCHI: From modest beginnings four decades ago, the Southern Air Command (SAC) — the country’s youngest air command — has come a long way, proving its mettle and spreading its wings relentlessly. As the SAC celebrates its 40th anniversary, it is time to revisit the journey of its glorious service.
Establishment of SAC headquarters
Until the early 1980s, the Central Air Command in Allahabad was responsible for providing air defence to the entire Indian Peninsula and its island territories. However, it was deemed geographically too far to exercise effective control and meet the increased security demands emerging from the changing geopolitical situation around the southern peninsula.
A need was, therefore, felt to establish an Operational Air Command covering the geopolitical area of south India, extending to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea.
On July 20, 1984, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi inaugurated the headquarters of the Southern Air Command (SAC) at ‘Belhaven Palace’ — an old palace of Travancore king located in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram city — with Air Marshal TJ Desa as the first Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief.
As personnel strength and operational relevance increased, the need for a command headquarters emerged. This led to the construction of the headquarters complex at Akkulam, which was inaugurated by Air Chief Marshal S K Sareen on April 6, 1996. By August 8, the Command and the unit moved from Belhaven Palace to the new complex.
Strategic operations
One of SAC’s successful operations was associated with the Indian Peace Keeping Forces in Sri Lanka called ‘Operation Pawan’ between July 1987 and September 1989. AN-32s under SAC maintained the air link with its air bases and various divisional headquarters across Sri Lanka to support nearly 1 lakh troops and paramilitary forces.
On November 3, 1988, Maldives faced an attempted coup. The Union government responded and accordingly, a joint operation of the Army and the Air Force (Operation Cactus) was launched. Two IL-76 carrying Army troops took off for the Maldives from Air Force Station Agra. The same day, a tactical operation room was immediately set up by the Southern Air Command. The next day, a detachment of SAC and Air Force Station Agra reached Maldives. Within 50 minutes, a two-way communication facility was established with the Indian mainland.
Humanitarian assistance
The first recorded history of humanitarian assistance rendered by the SAC was on August 19, 1986. The IAF had undertaken air-dropping of essential medicines for the dysentery-affected tribal community at Pulobhabi, a remote locality on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Then, during a flood in Andhra Pradesh in May 1990, SAC undertook a massive relief operation.
On December 26, 2004, tsunami struck Indian coasts. During the time, the first aircraft to land on a partially submerged runway at Carnicobar Airfield was SAC’s AN-32. Similarly, helicopter display team Sarang, located at Air Force Station Sulur, played a significant role in
‘Op Raahat’ in the Uttarakhand floods during July 2013. When Cyclone Ockhi hit the southern peninsula in 2017, the IAF reached out to the civil population for their rescue.
‘Operation Karuna’ during the 2018 Kerala floods deserves a special mention. IAF responded to the state’s request and pressed its workhorses such as the AN-32s, the Gajraj IL-76, the versatile C-130 and the Globemaster C-17 aircraft into action. The NDRF response teams were airlifted from Arakkonam to Kozhikod by AN-32 aircraft.
Helicopters ventured into areas inaccessible by even local boats, attempting some daredevil landings in adverse weather conditions. The sorties were undertaken braving bad weather, and at times the aircraft had to be flown below the minimum operational altitude without flight plans. IAF also mobilised 20,000kg of relief material through the Air Force Family Welfare Association.