Maintenance Command
Motto: 'SARVADA GAGENECHARET’ (ALWAYS FLYING IN THE SKY) TO ENABLE IAF TO ‘NABHA SPARSH DEEPTAM’ (TOUCHING THE SKY WITH GLORY)
The Maintenance Command of the IAF was formed at Kanpur on 26 January 1955 with Air Vice Marshal Harjinder Singh MBE PVSM as its first Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief. Kanpur was the hub centre of maintenance activities even before independence. The only Base Repair Depot (BRD) of the Indian Air Force existed at Kanpur, along with a Repair and Manufacturing Depot (RMD). A unit called Aircraft Manufacturing Depot (AMD) was subsequently added to undertake the manufacture of Avro aircraft. When the role of IAF was more clearly defined, AMD was transferred to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). This division of HAL is today known as Transport Aircraft Division or HAL (TAD), and is based at Chakeri, Kanpur. IAF, however, was poised to expand in times to come and Kanpur alone could not absorb the futuristic industrial activities. Nagpur was eventually selected as the new site for setting up Maintenance Command Headquarters.
MAINTENANCE AND LOGISTICS ESTABLISHMENTS
Technical activities undertaken by Maintenance Command are carried out at Base Repair Depots (BRDs), Equipment Depots (EDs), Air Storage Parks (ASPs), Air Force Liaison Establishments (AFLEs), Air Force Liaison Cells (AFLCs) and numerous other smaller units. Maintenance Command is responsible for product support, maintenance, repair and overhaul of all de-centralised variants of aircraft, aero-engines, missiles, ADGES Radars, Communication, Power and Air Conditioning equipment, GW equipment, Ground Radar, Radio and Nav aids including GCA, Airborne avionics, EW equipment etc. Additionally, HQ MC oversees the production and product support activities of HAL and BEL through Liaison Establishments and Liaison Cells.
To support air operations in the Far East during World War II, No. 322 Maintenance Unit was formed in 1940 in the 21 TATA hangers at Chakeri, Kanpur. The functions included arming of bombers and fighter aircraft like Liberator, Lancaster, Hurricane, Tempest and Dakota. The unit was further expanded to include aircraft storage and servicing activities, while the logistics support and aeroengine storage functions operated at Armapur Estate, 25 Km away from Chakeri. In August 1945, after Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces and hostilities came to an end, this No. 322 Maintenance Unit was disbanded and Royal Air Force Station, Kanpur came into formal existence.
On 15 August 1947, the historic day of India’s Independence, Wing Commander Ranjan Dutta DFC took over the command of Air Force Station, Kanpur from the Royal Air Force. Simultaneously, on this very day, the No. 1 Aircraft Repair Depot for servicing and No. 10 Aircraft Storage Unit for storage activities were formed at Chakeri, Kanpur. Group Captain DAR Nanda became the first Commanding Officer of both these units. On 09 August 1948, the two units were merged to form No. 1 Base Repair Depot and Group Captain Harjinder Singh MBE PVSM became the first Commanding Officer of this new unit. Nostalgic moments included the induction of India’s first jet aircraft, the Vampire, in 1954 and the Depot affecting its first major servicing in that very year. Flying Officer Gian Singh still remains a much-remembered name who used to regularly ferry in the Vampire aircraft for servicing at Hanger No.6 of the Depot. 1 BRD has a professionally rich heritage of servicing both fighter and transport aircraft of IAF like Spitfire, Prentice, Austar, Harvard, Otter, Bell Helicopter, Vampire, Toofani, Mystere, Hunter, Avro and presently An-32 aircraft.
Overhaul requirement of the transport and helicopter fleet of the IAF necessitated the setting up of No. 3 Base Repair Depot at Chandigarh on 20 Aug 1962. Group Captain TMJ Kriplani, the Depot’s first Commanding Officer, set up the requisite facilities with Russian collaboration and commenced the first overhaul of the IL-14 transport aircraft and the Mi-4 helicopter. With the induction of new helicopters in IAF, the Depot graduated to overhaul the Mi-8 and Mi-17 helicopters. In fact, the Depot has today become the knowledge base for all Russian helicopters, and has undertaken a number of tasks like life extension of Mi-25 helicopters, repair of Mi-26 helicopters and upgrade of Mi-35 helicopters.
Over a period of time, with the induction of weapon platforms, IAF felt the requirement to increase its capability in maintenance and overhauls of core equipment and associated systems/ subsystems. It led to the establishment of various Aircraft BRDs (1 BRD, 3 BRD, 5 BRD, 11 BRD), Engine BRDs (3 BRD and 4 BRD) and System BRDs (7 BRD, 8 BRD, 9 BRD, 12 BRD, 13 BRD, 14 BRD, 15 BRD and 16 BRD) over the geographical spread of India.
302 Maintenance Unit was established in 1939 at Allahabad. In 1942, it was converted into a Universal Equipment Depot, the first ever such Depot in South East Asia as per RAF records, to sustain the air operations of Allied Forces during the Second World War. In 1948 the Depot was renamed as 4 Equipment Depot and was rechristened as 24 Equipment Depot in 1966. Traversing through the days of providing spares support to aircraft such as Tempest, Spitfire, Gnat, Marut, Canberra, and Hunter aircraft, 24 Equipment Depot now stores spares for Jaguar, Avro and Dornier aircraft, Chetak / Cheetah and Cheetal Helicopters, ALH and RPA.
Similarly, 23 Equipment Depot at Avadi (Chennai) dates back to World War II. Christened in December 1944 as 337 Maintenance Unit under the Royal Indian Air Force, it functioned as a Supply Point and a Storage Depot for South-East Asia. It was renamed twice over as No. 3 Equipment Depot in September 1947 and 23 Equipment Depot in March 1966. With the expansion of IAF, several Equipment Depots pan India were established (25 ED at Devlali, 26 ED at Bengaluru, 27 ED at Palam, 28 ED at AMLA, 29 ED at Kanpur) followed by mini EDs (41 ED,42 ED,43 ED, 44 ED, 45 ED & 49 ED) to cater to diverse fleets and systems. Similarly, Air Force Liaison Establishments were set up alongside HAL Divisions to act as an interface between IAF and HAL.
In order to ensure the smooth movement of men and material, 31 Movement Control Unit was originally formed as the Air Movement Section at Mirpur in erstwhile West Pakistan in 1939. Subsequently, this unit was renamed the Passenger and Freight (P&F) Forwarding Section and remained under 3 Wing, which was later converted to a full-fledged Movement Control Unit on 11 May 1967. 31 MCU is the staging base for undertaking Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief operations. Unit has participated in 18 HADR missions in the last five years providing relief materials and assistance to people in need both in India and foreign destinations. The unit has been conferred the coveted Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) Tier-III status by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs on 17 Jan 2019. Various benefits are available to importers for this including the facility to make deferred payment of Customs duty. This unit thus became not only the first Defence unit but also the first Indian Entity to have acquired this status.
32 MCU was formed in 1948 as the Air Freight & Passenger (Mov) Unit. Subsequently, the unit was rechristened as 32 MCU, AF. Presently the unit is located at Terminal-1 of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. The Unit has obtained (AEO) Tier-II Certificate. 33 MCU was formed on 04 October 1982 at Air Force Station Guwahati to act as a single point ‘passenger and freight handling agency’ for the Eastern region. The Unit acts as a gateway for the Northeast and is a major transportation hub for IAF.
( Source: https://indianairforce.nic.in/maintenance-command/)