Bidar Air Force Station

The Station was also the home of the Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team. The team was a true ambassador of IAF. However, after their dazzling display during Aero India 2011, to meet its increasing training requirements, the IAF took decision to disband the team on 30 June 2011.[3]

Aerobatic Team is associated with Bidar AFS since 1990 with arrival of four-aircraft team called the Formation Aerobatic Team from Thunderbolt which were set up on Kiran trainers. The SKAT was born in 1996 and developed over time. It was conferred with Squadron status in 2006.

Pilots serving as Qualified Flying Instructors (QFIs) with approximately 1000 hours of experience on fighter aircraft can volunteer to be a part of the SKAT. Volunteers are invited to fly with the team, where their performance and personality traits are evaluated. Over the next six months or so, selected pilots then fly 70-75 sorties practising various manoeuvres before they get into the formation flying team.

The average tenure of a SKAT pilot is about three years. Two new pilots join the team every six months. Starting at high altitude with a single aircraft sortie, with the team leader or the deputy team leader in the Kiran's left-hand seat, the trainee moves on to two-aircraft and then three-aircraft formation flying. After mastering the skill of flying with two aircraft on either side, the trainee then goes in for four-aircraft and six-aircraft sorties before finally graduating on to nine-aircraft sorties. All types of rolls, loops, dives and formations are flown at various training stages.[5]

The team is led by a Commanding Officer who is also the leader of the formation during display sorties. The squad has 13 pilots out of whom nine perform at any given time. These display aircraft have enthralled audiences with their manoeuvres, since their inception in 1996. Senior and experienced fighter pilots are chosen to be part of the prestigious SKAT, which used the IAF's basic HJT-16 Kiran Mk-2 trainer aircraft. It now uses the Hawk Mk-132 aircraft since 2017.[4][6]

To perform the manoeuvres, a pilot requires tremendous concentration, grit and determination to take the aircraft to the extremes of its envelope.

• The most popular and also the most dangerous formation of the SKAT has been of the nine aircraft taking off in a V-shaped formation of three and joining up in close formation, manoeuvring between speeds of 150 and 650 km per hour with their wing tips a mere 5 metres apart.[7]
• Six Kiran trainer jets streak barely 50 metres above the ground in an arrowhead formation. With their wingtips separated by just five metres, they move into a diamond formation and roll towards their left to form a "card" formation with three aircraft flying abreast and another three trailing just behind.
• Reforming again after "synchro head-on cross", where two aircraft on the same level cross each other at a relative speed of 1100 km/h with a separation of just five metres, the brightly painted red and white aircraft, with their exhausts trailing smoke, dive vertically and then pull up again in different directions to simulate a bomb burst.

Flying training at AFS Bidar is now done on the Hawk Mk 132 aircraft. With the arrival of enhanced number of trainees and full complement of Hawk aircraft, the training academy is abuzz with activity. The station roars with engine noises throughout the day. The Hawk brings a huge step-up in capability as a training aircraft, bridging the gap between the basic piston-engined trainer and the high performance flying of an advanced fighter aircraft. It is aerodynamically much more forgiving and is a great introduction for trainee pilots to familiarise on before they go into fighters.[2]

The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha in a HAWK MK 132 simulator at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., during the Aero India-2015, in Bangalore on 19 February 2015.

The stage-III training, ahead of the pilots graduating to the supersonic jets such as MiG-21s, Jaguars, Mirages and Sukhoi SU-30MKIs. is carried out as the Station is the mother base for Hawk Mk 132 aircraft. Modern servicing facilities have been created which bench-mark the maintenance philosophy of IAF. The average airmen earlier worked with basic tools for servicing the aircraft. He has now become tech savvy in tune with the requirements of modern aircraft.[3]

The Hawk Mk 132 is a variant of the highly successful BAE Systems. It incorporates an open architecture mission computer, glass cockpit and a state of the art avionics suite including a new generation Inertial Navigation System with GPS (INGPS). It is also equipped with several Indian made components such as the communication sets, Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system and the radio altimeter. In addition to being an advanced jet trainer, Hawk Mk 132 is fully combat capable and can carry air to air missile and air to ground armament. It could also be used as a lightweight fighter.[8] Hawk can also be flown at night and perform a wide range of aerobatic manoeuvres.

The need for an AJT was first articulated by the IAF in 1982 and ever since has remained high on IAF's agenda for procurement. The IAF felt that there existed a quantum difference in the skill and judgement levels required of a young fighter pilot as he transited to state of the art fighters such as the Su-30 MKI, Mirage 2000 and MiG-29. The Hawk 132 would adequately serve as lead in trainer for these advanced aircraft.[8]

The first flypast of Hawk aircraft after induction into the Indian Air Force at Air Force Station, Bidar

Two Hawk Mk 132 advanced jet trainer (AJT) aircraft that departed BAE Systems', Warton airfield in UK on 8 November 2007, reached Air Force Station Bidar on 12 November 2007. The Hawk pair flown by a mix crew of BAE Systems and IAF pilots, Wing Commander Pankaj Jain and Squadron Leader Tarun Hindwani, first landed in India at the Jamnagar airbase while ferrying from Muscat, their previous stopover, on their way to Bidar. The AJT pair was escorted into Bidar airspace by the Suryakirans streaming national colours. Air Marshal GS Chaudhry, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Training Command and Air Commodore Ramesh Rai, AOC, AFS Bidar, oversaw the first arrival of the aircraft. This heralded yet another saga towards meeting the training requirements of the IAF pilots.[9]

Of the 66 aircraft being purchased, 24 were developed, built and supplied by BAE Systems, UK; while Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bengaluru is to manufacture the remaining 42 aircraft under licence in India.[9]

Bidar airfield, located in the North West of Karnataka, approx 150 km from Hyderabad, was chosen as the main operating base for the Hawk. This base has been a training establishment for budding fighter pilots of the IAF since 1963. To ensure the smooth induction of the Hawk, the Air Warriors under the command of Air Commodore Ramesh Rai have worked tirelessly to put the required infrastructure in place. They were, at all stages, assisted by the local civil authorities and population. The work services included extension of the two runways, improvement in landing facilities and creation of servicing facilities for the technology intensive Hawk aircraft.[8]

Hawk Operational Training Squadron

Bidar base has a classroom and fully computer-aided learning system for instruction of pilots and maintenance personnel.[2]

Hawk Mk 132 Simulator