Thaindian News

By Ritu Sharma
New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) As the Indian Air Force’s scintillating Surya Kiran Aerobatics Team (SKAT) takes to the sky during the Air Force Day parade Thursday, it might well be its last display. Due to the shortage of trainer aircraft the IAF is likely to disband the display team, only the third nine-aircraft formation of its kind in the world.

The IAF’s Surya Kirans painting the sky with the tricolour have captivated audiences wherever they have performed. However, with the entire fleet of the IAF’s basic trainer HPT-32 being grounded following a spate of crashes and engine failures, all the HJT-16 Kiran aircraft that make up the SKAT have to be pulled in for training rookie pilots.

“This (on Oct 8) will most probably be the last display of the Surya Kirans. At the moment, rookie IAF pilots are being trained on the Kirans due to the grounding of the HPT-32 fleet. Due to shortage of trainer aircraft, discussions are on to disband the display team,” a senior IAF official told IANS, requesting anonymity.

The grounding of the HPT-32s has hit the IAF like a “bolt from the blue”. Usually, around 140-150 cadets of the flying branch are trained on the HPT-32 at any given time. They then graduate for intermediate jet and weapons training to the Kiran aircraft.

However, with the HPT-32 being grounded, cadets are now directly being trained on the Kirans. Even the IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal P.V Naik has accepted recently that Surya Kirans had “limited” scope and the present arrangement can be sustained for “an year and a half”.

“The problem is that all the Kirans have been brought in from across the country to continue the training of the pilots. So discussions are on to disband the display team,” the official added.

Formed in 1996, the team has displayed at a number of places across India - from the Dal Lake in Srinagar where the tricolour was proudly streaked, to the sultry beaches of Thiruvananthapuram. The team performed abroad for the first time at Colombo during the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Sri Lankan Air Force in 2001. Last year, the team performed in China for the first time before an enthralled audience and became the ambassadors of IAF’s professionalism.

Painted in a “day-glow orange” and white colour scheme, the Surya Kiran team is based at the Bidar Air Force Station in Karnataka.

The team has a total of 13 pilots of whom only nine fly at any given time. The pilots are selected from the fighter stream of the IAF. Presently there are pilots with experience on the Mirage 2000, Jaguar, MiG-23 and MiG-27 fighter jets.