Sulur Air Force Station to add muscle with Tejas fighters

Coimbatore: No.18 squadron ‘Flying Bullets’ of the Indian Air Force (IAF) based at the Sulur Air Force Station here will become the second squadron to operate the indigenous light combat aircraft Tejas from Wednesday.
No 45 squadron ‘Flying Daggers’ at the station was the first squadron armoured with Tejas.
Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria, will operationalise ‘Flying Bullets’ at the station on Wednesday morning, making Sulur the only IAF base that has two Tejas squadrons.
No 18 squadron was formed on April 15, 1965, with the motto Teevra aur Nirbhaya (swift and fearless). It was flying MiG 27 fighter before it was decommissioned on April15, 2016. The squadron was resurrected on April 01, 2020 at the Sulur station.
The squadron participated in the 1971 war with Pakistan and was decorated with the highest gallantry award Param Vir Chakra awarded to flying officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon posthumously. It earned the sobriquet of ‘Defenders of Kashmir Valley’ by being the first to land and operate from Srinagar. The squadron was awarded the prestigious President's Standard in November 2015.
Tejas is a fourth-generation tailless compound delta wing aircraft equipped with fly-by-wire flight control system, integrated digital avionics and multi-mode radar. The structure is made of composite materials. It is the lightest and smallest in the group of fourth-generation supersonic combat aircraft.