Full Fledged Flight Detachment, Medium Power Radar for Indian Air Force Car Nicobar Base

The Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Car Nicobar soon will have a full-fledged flight detachment and a medium power radar (MPR) will be commissioned by 2012. This information was revealed by Wing Commander M.S. Sridhar - the officiating station commander - to online journal Aviation Week.

Wing Commander Sridhar:
"The MPR will further add teeth to the base ... We have a Rohini radar now with limited ground control interception. We will also have an air defense weapons squadron ... We lost close to 130 [people] from IAF during [the] tsunami and we have now completely reconstructed the base ... The runway was the key. It acted as the lifeline to people here, and it, too, was redone four months after the tsunami. The base had subsided by 1.2 meters, post-tsunami .. The 122 HF Helicopter Sqdn. operates the MI-8 choppers. There is a UAV base, which is used for reconnaissance for the southern and northern group of islands,"

The base spread across 509.4 acres, was handed over to India by the Royal Air Force in 1956. The runway is 8,790 ft. long. The base is located 280 km. (174 mi.) from Port Blair. The base is strategic for ANC because the major shipping lanes of many countries pass through the region. The base's development is is considered key for monitoring the Malacca Straits.

A couple of years ago, India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) tested the BrahMos supersonic ship-to-ship missile from the Car Nicobar region.