MUMBAI: With the airdropping of National Security Guard (NSG) commandos on the rooftop of Nariman House, where militants are holed up with hostages, the IAF has for the first time showcased its capability to air drop commandos on roof tops in thickly populated urban areas outside of Jammu and Kashmir.
IAF helicopters have been used on a number of occasions by the Special Forces of the Indian Army and NSG commandos to slither down on roof-tops there to tackle similar situations in Jammu and Kashmir. "Our choppers have demonstrated this capability in J&K earlier during counter insurgency and counter terrorism operations there and Special Forces troops use them while training for slithering operations also," IAF spokesperson Wg Cdr Mahesh Upasani told PTI.
The Mi-17 helicopter, which air dropped the commandos over the roof top of the building, was flown by Wg Cdr Amitabh Shukla, who took off from a nearby naval air base in Mumbai. "Today's operation was special in the sense as the chopper was operating inside a concrete jungle with lot of cables and wires running between the buildings. We had to make sure that our machine did not get hooked in them," IAF sources told PTI.
"Our chopper hovered over the building and closed in only after the pilot was sure that no such obstacles were there," he added. The pilot moved around the building steering itself clear from the firing range of terrorists and carried out the mission of inserting troops successfully, sources said. The IAF was asked to air drop commandos on Nariman House as their advance from ground were halted by terrorists sitting in advantageous positions inside the building. IAF had yesterday deployed two Mi-8s at INS Kunjali from Jamnagar for assisting commandos in the ongoing anti-terrorist operations there.
Today, it sent two more Mi-17 helicopters from a base close to Mumbai to strengthen its presence there. These helicopters can carry out multiple missions such as air dropping troops, casualty evacuation and surveillance of the area. IAF has plans of extending its fleet of Mi-17 IV helicopters and is looking to procure 80 of these multi-role machines from Russia to augment its capability in conducting heli-borne operations and transporting loads in high-altitude areas. These machines are not armed but they fly with machine guns mounted on them while operating over terrorist-infested areas in Jammu and Kashmir and North-east.
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