“The Air Force Academy has flown over 20,500 hours over the last one year – the highest ever in our history,” said the Air Chief Marchal RKS Bhadauria, the Chief of the Air Staff, on Saturday, while addressing the 161 graduating officers from the Indian Air Force Academy at Dundigal. Six officers from the Indian Navy and five officers from the Indian Coast Guard have also earned their coveted wings.
“The Pilots will get to fly fighters carrying an array of potent standoff precision weapons and connected in networks. The transport and helicopter fleets are equipped with C-17, C-130, ALH, Chinook, and Apache aircraft which are state of the art and capable of contributing equally effectively in war or HADR situations. Engineers will need to master e-MMS, which is one of the largest networked aircraft maintenance management systems in the world that we have established across diverse type of aircraft. Controllers will have to adapt to vectoring fighters in large formations using digitised and networked IACCS systems in the MAFI environment. Logisticians will use automation to drive procurement and resupply through totally automated and computerised networks on inventory management. All of you will be tied together with a completely paperless e-governance suite to enhance the efficiency of basic administration across the entire Air Force,” he said.
The Indian Air Force had introduced B Tech degree as compulsorily for the Air Force cadets in the National Defence Academy (NDA) and 81 of the 87 graduating officers from the Flying branch are B.Tech.
The Air Chief also said that the IAF transport fleet flew more than 3800 hours within two months in a huge effort across the globe and domestically to transport critical oxygen Tankers, and all related medical equipment and supplies.