Fighter jet, gun salute for MIAF Arjan Singh today

Ajay Banerjee 

Tribune News Service 

New Delhi, September 17

Air Force fighter jets will fly-past over the Delhi Cantonment in what will be the final military salute before the last rites of the Marshal of the IAF, Arjan Singh, are performed here tomorrow. 

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The Marshal, equal in rank to Field Marshal, died yesterday. Arjan Singh will be accorded a state funeral and the national flag will fly at half-mast in New Delhi. The entire political machinery and the three Service Chiefs are expected to be present at the cremation at Brar Square in Delhi Cantonment.

This will be unlike the July 2008 funeral of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw conducted in Ooty, Tamil Nadu. Though it was a state funeral, then Defence Minister AK Antony and the three Service Chiefs had not attended it and had faced a barrage of criticism.  

The mortal remains of the Marshal will be carried in a gun carriage procession at 8.15 am on Monday. The state funeral will commence at 9.30 am. “Gun salute will be given and a fly-past will be organised before the final rites,” a statement said. 

The IAF official said Sukhoi-30MKI, the twin-engine front fighter jet of the IAF, will be fly-past in salute to the Marshal. The fighter-jet salute will be unique especially for the man who took an on-the-spur decision on September 1, 1965, in the office of then Defence Minister YB Chavan to use the fighter jets in the war with Pakistan. He was accompanied by the then Army Chief, General JN Chaudhari, and Defence Secretary PVR Rao to Chavan’s chamber.

Within hours, the impact showed. “The IAF destroyed 10 tanks, two automatic guns and 30 to 40 vehicles of the invading column,” recounted SN Prasad in his book ‘The India-Pakistan War of 1965’, an authorised account from the Ministry of Defence archives. 

On September 3, Sqn Ldr Trevor Keelor, flying from Pathankot, downed a Pakistani F-86 Sabre jet and etched his name in IAF folklore as the first Indian pilot to have shot down an enemy plane mid-air. “Shooting down of an F-86 by the small Gnat had a stimulating effect on the morale of the Indian pilots,” wrote Prasad in his book.

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The decision was significant as the Air Force till then was lagging behind the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in terms of technology of that era. 

It had greater number of planes than the PAF but lacked air-to-air missiles and night-flying abilities. The F-104 ‘Starfighter’ of the PAF was among the first planes in the world to fly at Mach-2 speed. It had heat-seeking missiles, radar for interception and fire control. 

The Indian fleet of a 12-strong MiG 21s was not fully operational or integrated in the Indian Air Force.

The Pakistan Air Force relied on superior early warning radars installed at Peshawar, Multan, Sargodha and Badin while the IAF was dependant on single-radar unit at Amritsar for its western operations.