The Indian Air Force (IAF) has decided to re-equip 109 helicopter unit (HU) “The Knights”, one of the oldest and most commended helicopter unit at the air force station in Kangayampalayam at Coimbatore of Tamil Nadu.

Accordingly, the new aircraft were inducted on Thursday at a ceremony chaired by Air Marshal Jasbir Walia with the commanding Officer of 109 HU, Wg Cdr Ashok Kumar VM accepting the flight on behalf of the unit.

The unit has been strategically placed as sentinel of south.

 It acts as one of the first line of defence against any external aggression for the southern front as well as the angel of mercy while dealing with HADR missions.

The unit was raised in 1961 at Chandigarh with MI-4 helicopters. The unit has achieved the highest standard in all tasks entrusted to it and has played a pivotal role in
operations such as Liberation Of Goa, Chinese aggression of 1962, Mizo Hill Operations, Indo-Pak war of 1971 and “OP Cactus”.

The unit orchestrated one of the glorified missions in the history of helicopter operations “Op Pawan”. As part of the glorified history the unit was appropriately renamed “The Knights”.

The unit was crowned the "Best Helicopter Unit" in 1989. As a recognition of its exalting and glorified history, the unit was awarded the Presidential Standard in 1991.mIn 2015, the unit flew innumerable sorties to provide instant relief to the flood-affected people in Andhra Pradesh and Chennai.