Indian Military puts in place mechanism to ensure uninterrupted, fast delivery of supplies in Ladakh
Sep 16, 2020
Ladakh [India], September 16 : With a tense situation at Ladakh border, Indian Air Force and Indian Army have adopted a mechanism that ensures uninterrupted and fast delivery of supplies.
Forces are using C-17 and IL-76 aircraft along with Chinook helicopters to deliver supplies in forward location, reaching from parts of India to Ladakh.
Every day these two, one of the biggest aircrafts get essential supplies like tentages, clothing, food items, water bottles etc to Ladakh from different parts of the country to send them to forward locations.
With capacity of transporting tons of goods, these aircrafts and Chinook helicopters operated by Indian Air Force are working in coordination with Indian Army to ensure sufficient and non-interrupted supply of various items.
The process starts when these two big aircraft C-17 and IL-76 bring supplies from different areas to Ladakh. After unloading the supplies, the Army sanitises them and later these are transported to Chinook helicopters.
Helicopters then load the supplies and immediately take off to different locations in forward areas. All day, these helicopters ferry multiple times to supply essential items along with other important goods to jawans and units deployed in forward locations.
According to Indian Army officials, from loading items from a different city or state till dropping the goods to forward areas, it takes hardly couple of hours. This is the fastest mode and anything can be reached in few hours in forward locations.
"Airfield acts as the lifeline for the entire forces in Eastern Ladakh wherein the drills for supply chain management have been optimized and a well-oiled machinery exists to handle both transients and loads. This joint capability (Army and Air Force) is more than adequate to sustain the forces which have been built up. In addition, there is great scope to incorporate the civil resources into the operational logistics chain should there be a requirement," Major General Arvind Kapoor, Chief of Staff 14 Corps said.
Adding to it, Air Commodore DP Hirani said that both aircraft and helicopters are symbol of jointmanship of Army and Air Force.
"C-17 and Chinook are symbol of jointmanship utilised for heavy military equipment and logistics. The Air Force and Army have been working in synergy and it exemplifies the quick mobility of men and material in these mountainous terrains," Air Commodore DP Hirani said.
