Indian naval aviation from the first Sealand of 1951 and INS Garuda of 1953 to the President's Colour presented at INS Hansa in 2021.
The Sealand and INS Garuda
Indian naval aviation began with the acquisition of a Sealand aircraft on 13 January 1951. The Navy's first air station, INS Garuda at Kochi, was commissioned on 11 May 1953, and official statements use either date as the starting point. President Ram Nath Kovind's 2021 address counted from 1953.
Armed Firefly aircraft arrived in 1958. The next year Indian Naval Air Squadron 550 was commissioned with 10 Sealands, 10 Fireflies and three HT-2s.
Carriers from Vikrant to Vikramaditya
INS Vikrant was commissioned in 1961, with Sea Hawk fighters and Alize anti-submarine aircraft as her integral squadrons. She took part in the liberation of Goa that year. The President's 2021 address also recorded naval aviation's part in the wars of 1962 and 1965.
In the 1971 war Vikrant served on the eastern seaboard. Her aircraft and ships of the Eastern Fleet opened attacks on East Pakistan on 4 December, damaging the airfield at Cox's Bazar.
INS Viraat and the Sea Harrier came in the 1980s. MiG-29K fighters followed on INS Vikramaditya, commissioned in 2013.
Patrol aircraft and the 2021 Colour
Long-range maritime reconnaissance grew separately. The Navy took the Super Constellation from the Indian Air Force in 1976, then added the IL-38 in 1977, the TU-142M in 1989, the Dornier 228 in 1991 and the Boeing P-8I in 2013.
Helicopter types have included the Alouette, S-55, Sea King, the Kamov 25, 28 and 31, the UH-3H, the Advanced Light Helicopter and the MH-60R.
Naval aviators had by 2021 received one Maha Vir Chakra, six Vir Chakras, one Kirti Chakra, seven Shaurya Chakras and one Yudh Seva Medal, along with many Nao Sena Medals for gallantry.
President Kovind presented the President's Colour to Naval Aviation at INS Hansa, Goa, on 6 September 2021. The arm then had nine air stations, three air enclaves and more than 250 aircraft.
Cover image: Alec Wilson from Hampton-in-Arden, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized for this page. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shorts_SA.6_Sealand_1_preserved_at_the_Indian_Naval_Museum,_Goa,_India.jpg