A new Indian Air Force base housing Sukhoi and Jaguar fighters is likely to come up in Thanjavur in 2008 to keep the southern air command operationally ready and keep an eye on the crucial sea lanes crisscrossing the Indian Ocean.

“The proposal is under active consideration of the IAF top brass and is likely to come through next year.

Thanjavur base will house deep penetrating Jaguars and multi-role Su-30s,” an IAF officer told Deccan Herald.

Currently, IAF southern command with headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram has 10 operational bases under its control, two of which are in Bidar and Bangalore in Karnataka.  Others are Begumpet, Dundigal, Hakimpet, Tambaram, Car Nicobar, Madurai, Sulur, Port Blair. But only two forward bases, Madurai and Sulur, host fighter elements at the moment.

The situation, sources said, is likely to change in the coming years due to the emergence of the Indian Ocean region as a leading trade route carrying bulk of the global trading items and oil. The successful use of a vintage Czech-made Zlin 143L aircraft that flew at  tree top level by the Sri Lankan Tigers has also contributed to the Government’s decision to strengthen the southern command because of the presence of critical establishments like nuclear power plants close to the Tamil Nadu coast.

Keeping an eye

Though the IAF does not take the LTTE threats seriously, it sent eight of its mobile radar units to the peninsula to closely monitor the skies round the clock following the first LTTE strike in March.

Admitting the presence of vital gaps in the southern skies, IAF officials said radar coverage in the south required to be improved for better safety. For the first time since its birth in 1984 by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, the southern air command hosted the IAF commander’s conference in August to chalk out the strategies related to southern India.

In an indication of the growing importance of the peninsular region, the IAF held a week-long exercise Dakshin Prahar in the beginning of December. The exercise, conducted in two phases at Thiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad, reinforced the need for an active fighter base at an appropriate place from where both flanks can easily be covered by fighters.

The exercise proved that fighter operations in the south could be conducted smoothly without disrupting the civilian traffic and communication links could be established with the battleships in the Indian Ocean, said an IAF official.

More joint exercises combining the Army, IAF, coast guard and Naval forces would be organised in the future to ensure the safety of the sea lanes, he said.