The Golden Arrows, now with Rafales
No.17 Squadron, now with Rafales
No.17 Squadron ( Golden Arrows) are the first IAF unit with the Dassault Rafale and the squadron’s history is traced by the Vayu editorial team from its initial equipment with Harvard pistonengined trainers to Vampires, Hunters and finally MiG- 21s before number plating in 2016 and resurrection with the Rafale in 2019.
No.17 Squadron of the Indian Air Force which was formed on 1 October 1951 would be celebrating their 70th year in 2021 but for three years ( 2016- 2019) were in suspended animation, when their MiG-21Ms were phased out at AFS Bhatinda in the Punjab. They would perhaps have remained thus (like several other former MiG-21 squadrons) but for the fact that when squadrons were to be chosen for receiving the new Dassault Rafale F3-R, the CAS was Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa who had been CO No.17 Squadron during the Kargil operations in the summer of 1999. The rest is history!
As for history, the following article appeared in Vayu’s Issue VI/1988, when most of the officers and men of today’s No.17 Squadron were perhaps still in their teens. It is hoped that the ‘Golden Arrows’ would maintain this record of theirs for inspiration in the times to come.
Militant postures in the subcontinent over the 1950-51 period required that the Indian Air Force be expanded to support the Army in the contingency of operations against Pakistan. The IAF was under severe constraint in terms of equipment and funding at the time but a number of new squadrons were rapidly raised with whatever aircraft could be obtained from reserves within the country. The IAF’s combat force then consisted of some six fighter squadrons with the Tempest II and Spitfire Mk.XVIII, some Vampires and two units with reclaimed B-24 Liberators.
One of the new formations was No.17 Squadron, raised on 1st October 1951 (vide order Air HQ/TS 5513/49/D&E Admin. Instruction No. 14/ 11) at Ambala but this unit could only be equipped with 12 Harvard IIB training aircraft, some of these having been transferred from the Advanced Flying School and others overhauled by HAL.
No.17 got airborne on 25th October and six months later was deployed to a new airbase in the Punjab, still very much in the formative stage, the Harvard having fairly rudimentary armament of a single machinegun and some RPs. Army-Air cooperation exercises were carried out but the threat of war soon passed and the squadron moved back to Ambala.
In early 1954, No.17 was finally slated for re- equipment with contemporary aircraft and earmarked for conversion to the Vampire jet fighter. During the course of the year, No.17 received is first Vampire FB. Mk.52s and a couple of T.Mk.55s as operational trainers. In December 1954, Squadron leader Lakshman Katre (later Air Chief Marshal and CAS, IAF) took over as CO of No.17. In April 1956, the Squadron moved to Poona where it was allocated the task of air defence of Greater Bombay.
In August 1957, No.17 Squadron was selected as one of the first formations to be equipped with the Hawker Hunter F.Mk.56 and the new CO, Sqn Ldr Kanwar Singh and 7 other pilots of the unit proceeded to England for conversion training with No.229 OCU of the Royal Air Force at Chivenor and to Hawker Aircraft Ltd at Dunsfold. The Hunters along with Mystere IVAs ushered in the IAF’s transonic age and were to serve with great distinction for two decades, during which the IAF was engaged in two shooting wars.
Soon after the Hunters arrived in India, No.17 Squadron mounted an impressive Republic Day fly past on 26 January, 1958 and a few weeks later, carried out a firepower demonstration for a visiting Chinese military delegation. Demonstrating the rapidity with which the Squadron adapted to the new fighter, No.17 Squadron formed the IAF’s first (informal) aerobatic team with a 9-Hunter formation carrying out an aerobatic routine not emulated till the
Thunderbolts were formed (again with the Hunter) over twenty years later.
In late 1958, the Squadron moved to Poona and a year later, won the Arjuna Trophy for the best fighter squadron after winning the inter-squadron gunnery meet. Briefly in 1961, No.17 was commanded by Sqn Ldr MSD Wollen (later Air Marshal and Chairman of HAL), with detachments operating from Hakimpet, Bangalore and Madras.
In November 1961, eight Hunters of the Squadron provided a flypast in honour of the first Indian aircraft carrier INS Vikrant as it sailed into Bombay harbour. On 8 November 1961, the Squadron’s official crest and motto was awarded: a stretched bow with the Golden Arrow pointing heavenwards symbolising the golden radiance of the Creator and the Sanskrit motto Udaym meaning “ever rising skywards”.
Soon after No.17 were to be blooded in action, taking part in the brief Goa police action when on 18 December 1961, operating from Sambre near Belgaum, four Hunters carried out rocket attacks on Portuguese Army defence positions.
No.17 Squadron then moved to Eastern India in September 1962 and remained on alert during the Chinese conflict later that year. However, the IAF was not called into combat but the Squadron were to stay on in Assam for a long period thereafter, initially at Jorhat and later at Chabua.
During the 1965 conflict with Pakistan, No.17 sent Hunter detachments to two other bases and mounted combat air patrols over the Brahmaputra valley throughout the 3-week war as a deterrence against any escalation of war in the Eastern theatre.
Six years later, No.17 Squadron went to war in earnest. On 4th December 1971, the very first day of war, the Squadron mounted 18 counter air and close air support sorties. The very first formation of 4 Hunters were intercepted by PAF Sabres and in the melee, No.17 shot down two Sabres without loss to themselves. Flt Lt VK Neb who had shot down a Sabre in 1965, claimed a second in this 1971 action as did the CO, Wg Cdr Narinder Chatrath. Detachments of No.17 Squadron Hunters also operated from Kumbhigram airfield on close air support tasks. During the Bangladesh operations, the Squadron carried out a total of 253 sorties for close air support, counter air and fighter reconnaissance, primarily in support of the Indian Army’s 20th Mountain Division in action against Pak.16th Infantry Division. By the end of the 2 week war, the Golden Arrows had won two Vir Chakras, plus various other gallantry awards.
At the end of December 1974, No.17 moved to Adampur in the Western Sector, and were earmarked for conversion to a new fighter type after seventeen years on the venerable Hunter. In January 1975. under the Command of Wg Cdr Jasjit Singh, the Golden Arrows were re-equipped with the MiG-21M and thus entered the supersonic era. The CO flew No.17 Squadron’s first MiG-21M on 24 January 1975 and the rapidity with which the Squadron became fully- operational on the new type was evidenced by the award of ‘Best Fighter Squadron’ in Western Air Command in 1976, and winning of the Bombing Trophy in the Inter-Command Gunnery Meet in 1976 and 1978 and the Rocketry Trophy in 1975 and 1981. The Squadron was also awarded the Flight Safety Trophy in 1975 and 1982. No. 17 notched the highest recorded scores in air-to-air gunnery, both by the CO and collectively by the Squadron. ( see related article by Air Marshal Harish Masand).
In 1985, the Golden Arrows achieved the highest flying effort amongst all squadrons on MiG-21Ms in the IAF and thereafter regularly achieved 100% serviceability by flying all aircraft in its inventory once a year for the past several years. The Squadron moved to a number of locations in the sector over the next few years and in March 1988, was taken over by Wg Cdr RK Kachru as Commanding Officer: No.17 Squadron and were presented the Squadron Standard by the President of India at a ceremonial parade at Palam on 8 November 1988.
Thereafter, for the next 18 years there is little information available with this journal although the Managing Editor’s last interaction taking place with the ‘Golden Arrows’ during a superb formal dinner at the Western Air Command Officer’s Mess on 10 November 1988.
Their paths next crossed on 16 July 1999 at Srinagar, the day of ‘ ceasefire’ in the Kargil sector of Kashmir. No.17 Squadron were led in action by then Wg Cdr Birender Singh Dhanoa, one of whose officers Sqn Ldr Ajay Ahuja was shot down during action in the high mountains and tragically killed after successful ejection ( now subject of a Bollywood movie). Detailed accounts of IAF’s operations over the Kargil sector in the summer of 1999 were carried in Vayu Issues IV and V, 1999 and remain a reference to the IAF’s Op Safed Sagar.
17 years later, the Golden Arrows were number plated and later resurrected on 10 September 2019 at AFS Ambala where now CAS Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa, was present along with Air Marshal Raghunath Nambiar, AOCin-C WAC. The CO designate of No.17 Squadron Group Captain Harkirat Singh SC was presented a plaque and amidst the announcement that the Golden Arrows would be the first unit of the IAF to be equipped with the Dassault Rafale F3-R.
Led by Gp Capt Harkirat Singh, selected Indian Air Force pilots, engineers and support personnel proceeded to
France for conversion training on the Dassault Rafale, the first such IAF aircraft (RB 001, the alphabets chosen after the name of Rakesh Bhaduria, later CAS), being ceremonially received by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at Mérignac on 8 October 2019, Air Force Day ( see Vayu Issue VI/2019).
10 months later, the first five IAF Rafales (two twin-seaters and three single-seaters) departed Dassault’s Merignac facility on 27 July 2020 for their 8,500 kilometre ferry flight to Ambala staging via Al Dhafra air base in the UAE, with several mid-air refueling enroute.
The IAF Rafales entered Indian air space on 29 July 2020, escorted on their last lap by two IAF Sukhoi Su-30MKIs and touched down at AFS Ambala at 1500 hours that day ( see article in Vayu Issue IV/2020).
This first tranche of Rafales will be augmented by additional batches of this type over the next year, No.17 Squadron building up to its unit establishment by mid 2021 and beginning a new chapter for the Golden Arrows.