The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Visakhapatnam News : MiG-27 aircraft complete week-long operation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 25, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

MiG-27 aircraft complete week-long operation

Special Correspondent

FLYING HIGH: MiG-27 aircraft of the Indian Air Force taking off from the new runway at the airport in city on Friday.

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Visakhapatnam airport, controlled by the Indian navy – INS Dega, crossed another milestone when four MiG-27 fighter-bomber aircraft of the 18 squardon of Indian Air Force (IAF) successfully completed week-long operations from August 18, using the new 10,000 ft runway here.

The ability to safely operate day and night such high speed aircraft, commanded by Wing Commander Sameer Mehra, in Visakhapatnam greatly boosts Indian navy’s operational capabilities on the eastern sea board, said a naval release.

Night and poor visibility operation is possible as the airport here is fitted with the category-I instrument landing system.

Though it is officially not been declared operational, the test pilots of the commercial operators and the naval and coast guard flights are using them for their operations.

Extension of time limit

Meanwhile, sources said there is a move to extend the time limit for operation of commercial aircraft up to 9 p.m. from the present 5 p.m. and appoint a few more naval personnel to handle the air traffic control, runway maintenance and support service as the airport here is all set to get a boost with more flight operations in the winter schedule.

The Russian (erstwhile USSR) built MiG-27 aircraft, developed from MiG-23 and which has variants like MiG-27D, M, L, H and K, was introduced in 1975.

This single-seater turbojet aircraft which could carry air-to-surface, air-to-air missiles, could fly up to a maximum speed of 1800 km. per hour and reach 26,000 feet. They have night attack capability, superior navigation systems and improved targeting accuracy.

IAF has six MiG 27 squardons. The primary mission of the aircraft is the destruction of moving and stationary, fixed and mobile ground targets including hardened targets.

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