NEW DELHI: In a major boost to IAF’s strategic airlift capability to forward areas, a gigantic C-17 Globemaster-III aircraft has for the first time landed at the high-altitude Kargil airfield near the Line of Control with Pakistan.
The “trial run” saw the four-engine C-17 take off from its home base at Hindon on the outskirts of Delhi and land at the Kargil airstrip, which is in a bowl surrounded by mountains on all sides and located at an altitude of over 9,700-feet, on Wednesday morning.
“The next step will be to conduct a night landing by a C-17 at Kargil. The C-17 can normally airlift a 70-tonne cargo but it’s around 35 tonne at the altitude in Kargil. The much smaller C-130J `Super Hercules’ had landed at night in Kargil in Jan last year. The C-17 increases the load carrying capacity by around four times,” a source told TOI.
With an eye on both China and Pakistan, India has progressively upgraded the infrastructure at forward air-bases and advance landing grounds (ALGs), including Thoise, Fukche, Nyoma and Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) in Ladakh as well as Pasighat, Mechuka, Walong, Tuting, Along and Ziro in Arunachal Pradesh.
The ongoing Rs 230 crore upgrade work at the Nyoma ALG, which is located close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in eastern Ladakh at an altitude of 13,710-feet, for instance, includes extending and strengthening the existing airstrip into a 2.7-km `rigid pavement’ runway for all kinds of fixed-wing aircraft including fighters for “defensive as well as offensive operations”, as was earlier reported by TOI.
The IAF has inducted 11 C-17s for $4.5 billion and 13 C-130Js for $2.1 billion from the US over the last 15 years to augment its airlift capabilities. One C-130J was lost in a crash near Gwalior in March 2014, which killed the five personnel on board.
The rugged C-17s and C-130s, which can even land at makeshift airstrips, have been extensively used to airlift supplies and troops to border areas with China and Pakistan, evacuation of Indian nationals from abroad, and providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief in India and overseas.
In Aug 2013, for instance, a C-130J had for the first time landed at the rudimentary airstrip in DBO at an altitude of 16,614-feet, the highest such ALG in the world that overlooks the strategic Karakoram Pass and is just a few kms from the LAC with China.
