First Indigenous Overhauling Of Su-30 MKI Complete, Aircraft Handed Over To IAF By Base Repair Depot, Ojhar

Indian Air Force’s Base Repair Depot (BRD) that is situated at Ojhar in Maharashtra has successfully completed the task of overhauling a Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft. The aircraft was handed to Air Marshal H S Arora, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of South Western Air Command during a ceremony at the Air Force Station in Ojhar on Friday (26 October).

The Hindu quoted a statement from the IAF which reads, “Earlier, the first Su-30 MKI overhauled by this depot successfully took off on April 24 and has been flight tested for its airworthiness, before inducting it for operational tasks at a flying squadron.”

The BRD at Ojhar is the only fighter aircraft repair depot of the IAF. So far, it has maintained and overhauled fighter aircraft such as MiG-29, Sukhoi-30 MKI. The Su-30 MKI is a Russian fighter jet that is manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the IAF and over 240 aircraft have been inducted into service.

The availability of the fleet is reducing by the day, and this option of indigenous overhauling will help the IAF in reducing dependency and time that is required to stabilise the availability rate of the fleet. The handing over function was attended by several senior IAF dignitaries.