Panaji: Every day the twin-nosed aircraft, twin turbo-prop take off from ins Hansa, Dabolim to play cat and mouse games in the sea.
Even in the Indian Navy, very few know the privent for flight purposes and the purpose of the mission.
Although a little shorter than the deadly MIG-29K, Dornier Gray Double Do-228 lived with Moniker ‘Cobra’ while hunting and tracing his prey.
Prepared in 1991, Dorniers continued to play a big role in reconnaissance and supervision for the Indian Navy and military intelligence, which is why naval squadron services are requested by the Indian Air Force and Indian soldiers in 1999 for Vijay’s operations.
Dorniers of Inas 310, known as Cobras, is not always gray.
Short-range surveillance planes, which usually fly over open sea, use a blue and white paint scheme.
This changed during the cargil conflict when the three Dorniers detachment from the INAS 310 was deployed to the front surgery in Naliya, Gujarat, which was only 80 km from the Indo-sir border.
Basic officials realize that at night, the blue and white plane is a dead gift on a dark runway.
The first highlight was launched on the night of May 24, 1999, and for the next few days Dorniers PIN pointed to the radar of Pakistani land in Karachi, Lahore, early warning radar along the Indo-sir border, other potential targets.
From May to July 1999, Dorniers flew Kllandestin, the secret mission of collecting intelligence and information about enemy movements.
The cargil conflict is the first time Dorniers, with their 360 degree radar and sensors, deployed for information war on land.
“Initially, the Navy would want to put pressure on Islamabad by creating a maritime and dorniers blockade intended to determine surface assets, commercial cargo movements, but as the Army and the Indian Air Force realized technology capabilities, they asked Dorniers to fly to Rajasthan and even further north So that the troops and IAF can plan their attack on this radar or their traffic jam, “said Commodore R Seshadri Vasan (RETD), which as head of staff operations at Southern Naval Command had a view of Ringside about the role of the Navy in the Cargil conflict.
Dornier has a sophisticated Israeli sensor that can take transmission and identify their location.
Real-time intelligence is a pleasant surprise for the Indian Army HQ, which quickly asks Cobra to fly close to the Indo-sir border to lurk enemy forces.
“Dorniiers will fly low, sometimes at 500ft, to gather information about Pakistani warships, troop movements along the international border, radar station, missile batteries, and other signal intelligence,” said Captain (Right) Viriato Fernandes, which is a technical Senior officers at Kochi with the Inas 550 squadron.
Fernandes, who was awarded Vijay Bintang for being part of Operation Vijay, made a lack of awareness about the “Silent Service” of the Navy.
He did not miss the opportunity to encourage Goan youth to join the Navy.
Between May 24 and July 30, 1999, the squadron flew 174 missions in a dangerous environment with a total of 357 hours while gathering information for the Navy, Army and Air Force.
Remembering Cargil: When Cobras plays paint & mouse
