In the annals of the Indian Air Force (IAF), Bangalore has a prominent place as headquarters of one of its seven commands; the Training Command is situated in the city.
In the annals of the Indian Air Force (IAF), Bangalore has a prominent place as headquarters of one of its seven commands; the Training Command is situated in the city.
With the headquarters of this prestigious command located in the city, many training establishments along with a large number of IAF personnel are posted here including those who will form the future of the air force.
On the occasion of the 80th Air Force Day, DNA provides a brief insight on the activities undertaken by some of these institutions and how they are shaping the careers of the future air warriors.
Air Force Technical College
The Air Force Technical College (AFTC) situated in Jalahalli has an objective to educate and train the young engineers from various disciplines on current and modern technologies of aircraft, weapon and support systems of IAF instilling the qualities of military leadership, managerial skills, values and ethos of an air warrior and to mould them as effective aeronautical engineers.
Despite the lure of the private sector and the high paying jobs in the corporate world, a large number of youngsters from across the country enroll to get trained in this institute.
Every year 300 recruits are trained in ground level to make the IAF touch the sky with glory and the dropout is negligent as the IAF’s service conditions and timeframe of service are modified keeping in view of the current trend, says Commandant of AFTC, Air Commodore Alok Singh.
Software Development Institute
Information Technology (IT) is synonymous with Bangalore and it is not a coincidence that the IAF’s Software Development Institute (SDI) which is entrusted with the task of role of software development in avionics field is located in the city.
It is at the SDI where various state-of-the art systems and weapons are integrated into different fighter fleet such as Su-30 Mki, Jaguars, MiG Bison and MIG-27 aircraft of IAF. This is the only organisation in the country developing Mission Planning and Debrief System for all types of aircraft.
The institute has also successfully made inroads into simulation software also with the development of state of the art simulation projects such as Integrated Command Air Tasking System, Air Defence Simulator, Navigation Simulator and Visual Tower Simulator.
Every in-house design and development work of SDI, has been achieved in remarkably shorter duration. This has not only helped the nation in overcoming dependency on foreign vendors but also in retaining the valuable sensitive data of weapons and systems from exposure to outside world. Thus, the effort of SDI over duration of time has resulted in large savings to the ex-chequer (including foreign exchange) said Air Vice Marshal BK Sood, Commandant of SDI.
Air Force Institute of Dental Sciences
Over the years the psychological and physical requirement of the air warriors has evolved and to keep them in good health as important equally important task. The IAF has a number of specialty healthcare units in the city to keep its men fit and to train medical staff.
The Air Force Institute of Dental Sciences (AFIDS) is one among them. It provides multi-specialty dental care to the dependent as well as imparts training to the para-dental staff of IAF.
Roles of this institute are to provide multi-specialty dental care to dependent clientele, serve as professional training centre for para-dental staff of IAF, to organise and conduct research projects in the field of dental sciences and on aero-dental and allied problems encountered by IAF flying personnel.
Air Commodore HK Thombre, Commandant of the AFIDS says that this institute is only para-dental training centre for the entire Indian Air Force and conducts two year Dental Council of India recognised diploma courses for Medical Assistants. The institute also imparts para-dental training to personnel of friendly nations including Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
Air Force Day programmes
On the occasion of the Air Force Day, a number of programmes will be organised, among them is a wreath laying ceremony followed by oath taking ceremony and presentation of Commendation Cards will be held at the Headquarters Training Command.
Besides, governor HR Bhardwaj will address the Air Force personnel at the Command Hospital Air and also visit casualty and trauma centre, cancer ward and interact with the patients.
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