No. 2 Squadron IAF

No. 2 Squadron
Active	1 April 1941 - 15 December 1947 15 July 1951 - 2003 March 2009 - Present
Country	Republic of India
Branch	Indian Air Force
Type	Su-30MKI
Role	Air superiority
Garrison/HQ	Tezpur AFS
Nickname(s)	"Winged Arrows"
Motto(s)	Amogh Lakshya True To Aim
Insignia
Identification symbol	Winged Arrow
Aircraft flown
Fighter	Sukhoi Su-30MKI

No.2 Squadron (Winged Arrows) is a unit dedicated to CAS in the Indian Air Force. No. 2 Squadron falls under the Eastern Air Command. ^[1]

History

Although No. 2 Squadron was formally established in 1941 at Peshawar, its roots stretch back to the mid-1930s when Indian pilots under the RAF began preliminary training deployments. Several historical sources cite administrative groundwork, aircraft allocation issues, and instructor shortages as reasons for the squadron's delayed operationalisation. ^[2]

Assignments

• World War II
• Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
• Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

In 1947 during partition, No. 2 RIAF Squadron was allocated to India.

Aircraft

Aircraft	From	To	Air Base
Pre-Independence (1941–47)
Westland Wapiti IIA	1 April 1941	December 1941	Kohat [3] [4]
Hawker Audax	July 1941	January 1942	Peshawar
Westland Lysander	December 1941	October 1942	South India
Hawker Hurricane Mk IIB	October 1941	December 1944	Ranchi
Hawker Hurricane Mk IIC	January 1945	March 1946
Harvard IIB	October 1945	September 1947	Samungli
Spitfire VIII	February 1946	January 1947
Post-Independence (1951–Present)
Spitfire VIII	August 1951	November 1953	AFS Palam
Harvard IIB
Vampire FB52	November 1953	June 1956
Dassault Ouragan	June 1956	May 1962
Folland Gnat I	May 1962	March 1983
HAL Ajeet	December 1983	April 1991
MiG-27	July 1991	October 2003
Su-30 MKI	July 2009	Present	AFS Tezpur

References

1. Dutch Aviation Society. OrBat of the Indian Air Force Archived 22 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
2. Gupta, Anchit (14 December 2024). "Eight Years to Take-Off: The Surprising Birth of No. 2 Squadron". IAFHistory. Retrieved 4 May 2025.
3. "No.2 Squadron Winged Daggers". Bharat Rakshak. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
4. Pillarisetti, Jagan (14 June 2017). "No.2 Squadron". Bharat Rakshak. Retrieved 21 June 2021.