CENTRE FOR AIR POWER STUDIES - New Delhi - Kargil Vijay Diwas Rajat Jayanti

Subsequent news of the crashing of a Mig-27 aircraft in POK, capture of the pilot, Flt Lt K Nachiketa, shooting of the Escort Mig-21 aircraft by a Stinger missile, the murder of its captured pilot Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja in cold blood and the shooting down of a Mi-17 again by a stinger missile, resulting in death of all the crew members, enraged all. [...] Consequently, a methodology was evolved in the Squadron to use the waypoint depiction on the HUD as the Target position mark and thereafter use R/T to relay the approximate accuracy to the Ground Forces. [...] On reaching the calculated standoff point and establishing orbit pattern in the target area, we found that the methodology was workable as the sequence of firing by the Bofors Guns was not continuous and gave the necessary time interval to be able to correlate the firing with respect to the target waypoint and relay approximate accuracies to the ground. [...] When the same was debriefed to the Command Ops Staff on return, they were both enormously amazed and respectful of the professionalism of the Squadron and the operational commitment levels. [...] The experiences, thought processes, effective actions leading to the eventual success, enormously enhanced the confidence levels and sense of belief in the conduct of fighter operations for the IAF, leading to successes and the premier reputation of the IAF in the various subsequent international exercises such as Cope India, Cope Thunder, Ex Indradhanush and the Red Flag exercises.