Jammu’s technical airport ready for fighter jets
In a major boost for the operational capabilities of Indian Air Force (IAF) and armed forces, fighter jet landing facility has been ready at Technical Airport, Jammu.
The government has widened the technical Airport of Jammu to make landing of fighter jets possible.
“After last 3 days of continuous efforts of landing, several fighter jets including Rafale, Sukhoi-30 and MiG-29 were successfully landed in at could be done easily at the Technical Airport of Jammu,” an official said.
Landing fighter jets at strategic located Jammu Technical Airport holds significance as aerial distance with Pakistan is just 7 kilometers away from here while LoC of Akhnoor sector is 9 kilometers away.
Earlier, fighter jets flew from Ambala Air Base in Balakot Air Strike. Ambala Air Base was also used to defeat Pakistan’s F-16 in Nowshera. Ambala Air Base was also used in the 1965 and 1971 wars. But now the Jammu Technical Airport is also fully ready for fighter jets.
Moreover, Jammu’s first landing strip will focus on the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan. This comes as the Indian Air Force is boosting its capabilities.
Jammu’s landing strip was built as part of government of India’s initiatives to develop five landing strips in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions. The strip will give a major boost to military operations in hostile situations with adversaries like Pakistan on Western front and Eastern Front facing China.
In September 2021, the five emergency landing strips were proposed for fighter jets in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Location of two of them has been decided between Bijbehara-Chinar Bagh and Srinagar-Banihal while three others are expected to come up along Jammu-Pathankot, Jammu-Poonch highways and in Ladakh.
The strips were planned at the time of the border standoff between Indian and Chinese armies along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh.
The major highway connecting Ladakh to the rest of the country passes through Kashmir.
The landing strips are expected to play an important role in rescue efforts in situations of natural calamities like floods.
The government took a cue from an inter-ministerial joint committee meeting between the Ministry of Defence and the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2016, which discussed the feasibility of setting up emergency landing strips on highways.
The IAF and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) were tasked with site survey and inspection.
More than 10 strips are planned across India, one of them recently inaugurated at the GandhavBhakasar section on National Highway-925 in Barmer, Rajasthan.
The upcoming strip will have parking slots for four aircraft, an air traffic control (ATC) tower, and two gates at both ends of the strip.
