The Tejas fighter jet too will not be part of the flypast as the Air Force has stopped flying single-engine aircraft at such national events. Moreover, this time there will not be separate tableaus by the Army, Air Force and Navy. Instead, there is likely to be a single tri-services tableau as part of the theaterisation and jointness effort of the armed forces.
A total of 40 aircraft, including 22 fighter aircraft, 11 transport aircraft and seven helicopters, will be part of this year’s Republic Day flypast. These aircraft will operate from 10 different bases. The participating aircraft, including MiG-29, Su-30, Jaguar and Rafale, among others, will fly in 12 formations. The Apache attack helicopter, AN-32, C-130, C-295 and C-17 will too be part of the flypast.
The IAF marching contingent this year will comprise four officers (one contingent commander and three supernumerary officers) and 144 airmen. The contingent commander will be Sqn Ldr Mahender Singh, with Flt Lt Damini Deshmukh, Flt Lt Nepo Moirangthem, Fg Offr Abhinav Ghosh as the supernumerary officers. The Air Force contingent marches abreast in a 12 by 12 formation to the tunes played by the IAF band, consisting of 72 musicians consisting of 22 AGV and three drum majors lead by Sgt Charles Anthony Daniel. The band would be playing the tune “Sound Barrier” as it crosses the presidential dais.
A Coast Guard ALH crashed at Gujarat's Porbandar on January 5, following which the armed forces has grounded the entire fleet of twin-engine helicopters. These are likely to remain grounded till a high-level probe panel finds the root cause of the crash that killed two Coast Guard pilots and an aircrew diver. The helicopters have been part of the Republic Day flypasts for nearly one-and-half decades. The ALH-Dhruv, produced by state-run aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is a multi-role, multi-mission new generation helicopter in the 5.5 ton weight class.
