Sulur AFS

Sulur Air Force Station is an air base of the Indian Air Force located at Sulur near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. It is operated by the Southern Air Command and is the second largest air base of the Indian Air Force. The base is tasked with protecting the coasts of Southern India. It is home to the No. 5 Base Repair Depot and No. 43 Wing of the Indian Air Force, and also serves as one of the operating bases of Garud Commando Force, the special forces unit of the Air Force. The airbase accommodates a fleet of Antonov An-32 transport aircraft, Mil Mi-17 transport helicopters, HAL Dhruv utility helicopters of the Sarang display team, and HAL Tejas fighter aircraft. It is the only air force station in India which hosts fighters, transport planes, helicopters, microlights, and paragliders at a single venue. The base also hosts repair and overhauling depots, maintenance and storage hangars for aircraft, a flying school, and a Type Training School (TETTRA) of the Air Force.

The base was established in the early 1940s by the Royal Navy as RNAS Sulur, commissioned in 1942 as a Royal Air Force base under the South East Asian Command, serving as a transit base for Allied forces during the Second World War. It was taken over by the Royal Air Force after the war and later handed over to the Royal Navy in 1945. After Indian Independence in 1947, the Indian Navy took over the base, establishing INS Hansa. In 1956, the Indian Air Force took over the station, converting it into a repair station and establishing the No. 5 Base Repair Depot (5 BRD). The No. 43 Wing of the Indian Air Force was established at Sulur in 1985. The base provided support for Indian military operations during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and the deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka in 1987. Since 2017, the airbase has been engaged in structural and engine repairs, overhaul, and maintenance of LRUs for trainer aircraft. It hosted the first phase of Exercise Tarang Shakti in 2024, a multinational air force exercise.