Ready To Deal With Any Challenge: IAF

Jammu- Ahead of the Air Force Day on October 8, the Air-Officer-Commanding (AOC) of Air Force Station, Jammu, Air Commodore Sagar Singh Rawat, Vayu Sena Medal, Friday said that Indian Air Force (IAF) is ready to respond to any eventuality and has put all measures in place to counter the threat of drones from across the Indo-Pak border in Jammu. Addressing a press conference at Jammu, the AoC AFS, said that the air force is ready and prepared for all eventualities and challenges. “See we are prepared for any eventuality and all measures are in place,” Air Officer Commanding (AoC) Jammu, Air Commodore S S Rawat told reporters here to a question on drone threat, adding that all measures are in place to counter drone threats. Asked about the success rate of IAF’s surveillance operations, Rawat said most of the operations are successful. “Our platform is capable of carrying out surveillance and reconnaissance with efficiency,” said the AOC. The IAF is deployed for such operations in coordination with the Army, Rawat added. The Air Force also demonstrated Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) recently conducted by Jammu based 130 Helicopter Unit (Condors) in recent Himachal Pradesh floods and commanding officer of the unit which, equipped with Mil Mi-17, Irfan Juriyal, stressed on the importance of helicopters for terrain like Jammu and Kashmir. “All I can say through your (media) medium is that people can trust us and we are available to save them from any natural calamity or disaster like situation,” said Juriyal, who is also CO of Helicopter Unit. Earlier, AOC Rawat welcomed the participants and greeted the 91st anniversary of the Indian Air Force. Wing Commander Juriyal further added, “Yes we do face challenges during such situations when many people who are being evacuated feel hesitant and are not confident in extending a hand for help on seeing a huge machine (MI-17 Helicopter).” “But, our Garud Commandos play an important role in restoring the confidence of the trapped people to save their precious lives. People can trust us as we are always available to save them from any calamity during Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations,” said the IAF officer. “The operation was challenging in view of the topography of the area but our teams including the Garud Commandos and trained crew were always on toes and evacuated them in a very professional manner,” he added. Wing Commander Juriyal said, “the operational team also had amazing coordination with the command system team while the technical and mechanical team like everyone else played a key role thoroughly and professionally to carry out the operation successfully.”