Sirsa Air Force Station Sirsa Vayu Sena Chhawni | |||||||||||
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Summary | |||||||||||
Airport type | Military | ||||||||||
Owner | Indian Air Force | ||||||||||
Operator | Western Air Command | ||||||||||
Location | Sirsa, Haryana | ||||||||||
Occupants | No. 21 Squadron IAF No. 15 Squadron IAF | ||||||||||
Time zone | IST (UTC+05:30) | ||||||||||
Elevation AMSL | 198 m / 650 ft | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 29°33′42″N75°00′21″E / 29.56167°N 75.00583°E | ||||||||||
Map | |||||||||||
Runways | |||||||||||
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Sirsa Air Force Station or Sirsa AFS (ICAO: VISX) is an Indian Air Force base under Western Air Command, located at Sirsa in the state of Haryana, India. [2]
In Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, Pakistan Air Force launched a pre-emptive raid on 12 airforce stations, [3] including Sirsa station, Faridkot Stations, Halwara Air Force Station, a few railway stations, Indian armour concentrations and other targets. However, this failed to cause any significant damage except pothole damage to the runway which was quickly repaired. [4] Dassault Mystère IV jets from Sirsa base pounded the Pakistan Army pitched against the Indian Army in the Battle of Sabuna Drain. Dassault Mystère also hit a train and destroyed 50 tanks on it between Okara and Sahiwal.
It has No. 21 Squadron IAF of 45 Wing. Wing is an active air force combat formation. No. 15 Squadron IAF operating Su-30MKI is also based here. [5] [6]
Originally the base was home to a squadron each of MiG-23s single-engine fighters and MiG-27s single-engine ground-attack aircraft, of No. 21 Squadron IAF. [7]
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