How the Indian Army's aviators grew from an Air OP flight formed at Partition into a corps raised on 1 November 1986.
Air OP flights after the 659 Squadron split
At midnight on 14 August 1947, the assets of the Royal Air Force's 659 Air Observation Post Squadron were divided between India and Pakistan. India's share became 1 Independent Air OP Flight, equipped with Tiger Moths and Austers. Its pilots flew in support of the artillery, spotting and directing fire.
The arm stayed small through the 1950s and 1960s. Lt Gen BS Pawar, a former head of the Corps, records four flights and one squadron, named 659 Air OP Squadron on the eve of the 1965 operations.
Those aircraft went to war unarmed. By Pawar's count, Air OP units earned 2 Maha Vir Chakras, 12 Vir Chakras and 4 Vayu Sena Medals in 1965 and 1971.
From Austers to the Chetak and Cheetah
Helicopters began replacing the fixed-wing aircraft in the late 1960s. The Alouette III and the Lama entered service under the names Chetak and Cheetah.
The Siachen Glacier tested the Cheetah at its limits. In a 2019 address, the President of India dated the Corps' presence there to 1984 and the launch of Operation Meghdoot, two years before the Corps itself existed. The Indian Army's own account says the Cheetah works at 20,000 feet and above, on the extreme fringe of its flight envelope.
The Corps raised on 1 November 1986
The Army Aviation Corps came into being on 1 November 1986. Pilot selection opened to all arms, and the Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers took over maintenance.
Its first test followed quickly in Sri Lanka, on Operation Pawan. Cheetahs flying there in a fire support role were called Ranjits. Operation Vijay followed in Kargil in 1999, and the Army records service with United Nations missions in Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
President Ram Nath Kovind presented the Colour to the Corps on 10 October 2019, at a parade at the Army Aviation Base, Nasik Road. The Combat Army Aviation Training School received it on the Corps' behalf. The President told the parade that the Corps had earned 273 honours and awards for gallantry and distinguished service.
Pawar dates the raising of the first Light Combat Helicopter unit to June 2022.
Cover image: Anirvan Shukla, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized for this page. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indian_Army%27s_HAL_Cheetah_at_Leh_(1).JPG