Military Digest: ‘Valiants’ and ‘Flying Daggers’ to receive President’s Standards on March 8

The Valiants: A History

Air Force Station Halwara had become home to No 221 Squadron, known as ‘Valiants’, ever since they converted to MiG-23 BN aircraft in February 1982. In 2009, when the MIG-23 BN was phased out of the IAF, 221 Squadron was the last one to be equipped with this aircraft. The Squadron was ‘number plated’ or retired from active service at the time and was reactivated in 2017 with the induction of SU-30 aircraft.

With the motto Tejaso Shatrun Damayah (Vanquish the Enemy with Valour), the Squadron was formed on February 14, 1963, at Barrackpore in West Bengal under the command of Squadron Leader Narinder Chatrath with 22 officers. It was then a part of the 55 Bengal Auxiliary Air Force Squadron.

Initially equipped with Vampire, Spitfire and Hurricane aircraft, it assumed the mantle of an operational unit when selected to support the Indian Army’s advance in East Pakistan during the India-Pakistan war of December 1971.

Air Commodore Ravish Malhotra, who was selected along with Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma to undergo training in the erstwhile USSR for the first Indian to be sent into space, served in 221 Squadron.

The ‘Valiants’ had entered the Swing Wing era with the induction of MiG-23 BN in IAF on 24 Jan 1981 after a changeover from SU-7 aircraft. This single-seater ground attack aircraft was the result of Mikoyan Design Bureau’s radical approach to incorporate variable geometry wings in the aircraft, a swing-wing concept to compromise on the conflicting requirement of high-speed flight with good low-speed handling.

The Valiants bid farewell to MiG-23 BN on March 6, 2009, in a ceremony presided over by the then Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major. Wing Commander Y J Joshi and Squadron Leader T R Sahu of 221 Sqn flew the aircraft on its last flight.

‘Flying Daggers’ of Atlantique fame

The No 45 Squadron was formed on February 15, 1960, with Squadron Leader Mirgind Singh Grewal as its first Commanding Officer. The Squadron was equipped with the British-built De Havilland Vampire aircraft at the time and christened ‘Flying Daggers’ with its motto being “Ajeeta Nabaha”.

The Squadron took part in the India-Pakistan war of 1965 and was tasked with the first strike mission of the conflict carried out on an armoured column in the Chhamb sector in Jammu and Kashmir. Leading defence website Bharat-Rakshak.com lists this as the first time that a jet fighter was used by the IAF in an offensive role in a war. However, the Squadron paid a heavy price in the air strikes with four aircraft lost, one to ground fire and three to Pakistan Air Force’s Sabre Jets.

After the 1965 war, the Squadron was re-equipped with the ‘Gnat’ aircraft and later with Mig-21 T-77 and then a Mig-21 Bis squadron.

On August 10, 1999, in the immediate aftermath of the Kargil conflict, two aircraft of the No 45 Squadron hit the headlines when a Pakistan Navy Atlantique aircraft which had intruded into Indian air space was shot down in the Kutch sector.

At the time, the Squadron was based in Naliya in Gujarat and two MIG-21 aircraft flown by Squadron Leader P K Bundela with Flying Officer S Narayanan intercepted the aircraft. Squadron Leader Bundela fired an air-to-air missile which hit the Pakistani aircraft and brought it down killing all 16 Pakistan Navy personnel onboard.

The Squadron was number-plated in December 2002 and raised again on July 1, 2016, with the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas in Bengaluru. It shifted to its present location in Sulur, near Coimbatore, in 2018.

Late Air Marshal D S Basra, who retired as AOC-in-C Southern Air Command, was one of the Commanding Officers of 45 Squadron as was Air Marshal H S Arora who retired as Vice Chief of Air Staff in June 2021 and passed away soon after.