Mr. Antony handed over the keys of the aircraft to the commanding officer of No. 77 squadron, Group Captain Tejbir Singh in the presence of the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal P V Naik. Mr. Antony said, government is fully committed to provide the latest arms to its Forces. He also said, India is always committed for peace and stability in the immediate neighbourhood. AIR correspondent reports that the new fleet is one of the biggest contracts executed so far under Washington’s foreign military sales programme. The fleet will have another five aircrafts by the end of this year, to make it to six.
The awesome arsenal of Indian Airforce has added another world’s top class giant all purosose aircrat to its inventry.Named as veiled vipers, the aircraft adopts kill with stealth as its motto. The tactical airlift aircraft will be able to undertake quick deployment of special forces in all weather conditions. This super hercules aircraft is capable of undertaking low level air to air refuelling to enhance its range. One of the reasons for basing the fleet near Delhi appears to be to cut down the response time in dealing with situations like the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.