Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 4

The Border Security Force’s (BSF) air wing will be back to its full strength after several years with six Mi-17 helicopters returning from Russia following a major overhaul, giving a much-needed fillip to air support for anti-Naxal operations and internal security duties. “The helicopters would be re-joining the fleet in July,” BSF Director General, KK Sharma, told The Tribune during his visit to Chandigarh. “They had been sent to Russia for their periodic overhaul,” he added.The air wing’s mandate includes logistic air support to Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) under the Home Ministry, anti-Naxal and counter-insurgency operations, air maintenance of remote border outposts, casualty evacuation, disaster relief operations as well as VVIP transport. A large number of battalions from various CAPFs are deployed for combating Left-Wing Extremism and helicopters provide them an important support element.The BSF, the only CAPF to have an air wing, has a mixed fleet of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft comprising one Embraer 135 business jet, two ageing HS-748 Avro aircraft, a Cheetah, six Mi-17 1V, eight Mi-17 V5 and six Dhruv helicopters. A King Air light aircraft operated by it had crashed in 2015. The aircraft operate from several airbases across the country.The air wing, set up in 1969, has in the recent past faced issues of manpower as well as technical support. Earlier, the BSF was entirely dependent on air crew drawn from the Air Force, but it has now started to induct its own pilots.