R-Day fete: HAL's Rudra to debut; special tune for Arjan Singh

Indigenous armed helicopter Rudra, manufactured by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, will make its debut at this year's Republic Day parade here.

With the NDA government inviting 10 ASEAN leaders  as chief guests at the parade, breaking away from the tradition of having the leader of a single country, an ASEAN flag will be carried by an IAF chopper at the beginning of the parade.

There would be 38 aircraft in the flypast, out of which 21 would be combat jets and 12 helicopters.The Rudra formation will replace the Mi-35 gunships that flew in the previous shows. The Rudra will be preceded by four Dhruv advanced light helicopters that will fly in a diamond formation over the Rajpath.

The fighter aircraft would be represented by Su-30MKI, indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, Jaguars and MiG-29s, which would display their skills in formation flying.

Vertical Charlie

The show-stopper would be a single Su-30MKI doing a Vertical Charlie in which the aircraft spins on its own axis while going up.

In memory of Air Force Marshal Arjan Singh, who passed away in September 2017, the 75-member strong IAF band will play a special tune while marching on the central boulevard. Air Commodore Kanwal Wali, principal director (organisation and ceremony) at the Air Headquarters, said here on Thursday.

The IAF marching contingent will have 144 air warriors, whereas its tableau would depict indigenous products like Tejas, Rudra, Aakash air defence missile and Arudhra radar.