The Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha is on a two day visit to assess the progress and take stock of ongoing projects of Units under Maintenance Command at Nasik and Bangalore, from today. He will also visit both the pisions of HAL at Nasik and Bangalore. He will be accompanied by Shri GC Pati, Secretary Defence Production to provide an impetus to enhanced co-ordination between HAL and IAF in managing all aircraft projects under HAL. This visit gains significant importance since the Air Force’s operational capabilities are dependent on HAL.
On arrival at Nasik the Air Chief and Secretary Defence Production will be received by Air Cmde S Padegaonkar and will be briefed on the activities carried out by this important maintenance support base. The visit will see the Air Chief visiting the state of art equipment and infrastructure of the BRD. The CAS and Secretary DP will visit the HAL pision at Nasik where they will be received by Chairman HAL, Dr. RK Tyagi. This pision is involved in license manufacturer of SU-30, repair, overhaul and upgrade of MiG series aircraft, aggregates and rotables. It supplies spares and consumables as well as provide, life extensions, modifications, site repairs and investigations. At 25 ED, the Chief will visit the material management Institute of Indian Air Force.
Chairman HAL will accompany the CAS and Secretary Defence Production to Bangalore. At Bangalore, the first visit would be to HAL pision where there are several ongoing projects like LCA, Hawks, Jaguar upgrade and LCH. During these interactions, since HAL is a major stake holder in IAF’s modernization plan, Air Force projects will get a new boost. This would be followed by a visit to 26 ED. This equipment depot has the main objective of providing repairable units and spares. It is an effective interface between Air Force and HAL and handles a variety of weapon systems.