The Hindu : National : Plan to station Sukhoi-30 fighters in Andamans put on hold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 29, 2004

National

National

Plan to station Sukhoi-30 fighters in Andamans put on hold

By Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI, DEC. 28. The tsunami disaster has affected the Indian Air Force (IAF) plans to make its Carnic air base in Andaman and Nicobar Islands more potent. The extensive damage to the recently strengthened runway has forced the IAF to postpone the stationing of the deep strike Sukhoi-30 fighters by at least six months, said authoritative sources.

Presently based at Lohegaon air force base near Pune, the IAF wanted to move the newer lot of Sukhois to Carnic, initially for exercises. Thereafter, the IAF was planning to station them there permanently. "The plans are on hold,'' said official sources.

Sources said the capacity of the infrastructure to house these sophisticated machines would have been assessed with the first exercise involving Sukhois planned for January 5 followed by a few more. All that will now have to wait indefinitely.

The positioning of the "generation four plus'' planes, which can be refuelled in mid-air and can hit targets 100 km away would have changed the `rules of engagement' in the vicinity since no other country in the region has a plane with similar potency and punch.

Indications that the plan to station the Sukhois at Carnic would have to be reviewed are clear from the reports of extensive damage to the air station. The Government has declared that the base will now be a non-family station.

The surviving families of all the 250 officers and airmen stationed there are being shifted to the Tambaram air force base near Chennai.

While the Lohegaon base near Pune was chosen to better protect the country's considerable economic assets in the region, the Carnic base would have supplemented the Navy's ability to keep an eye on one of the world's busiest sea-lanes in the region.

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