No.125 Helicopter Squadron Gladiators Motto : Balidaan Veerasya Bhushanam (Sacrifice is jewel of Brave) Date Raised : 1983-12-31 125(H) Squadron was raised on 01 Nov 1983 at Pathankot with the Mi 25 attack Helicopters. In June 1990, Mi 35 helicopters were inducted into the Squadron and were subsequently upgraded with night fighting capabilities. In 2019, the squadron inducted the Apache AH-64E. Within four years of its inception, the squadron was deployed during “Op Brasstacks”. Subsequently, the gladiators played a very active role in Sri Lanka during “Op Pawan”. As a part of the Indian peace keeping force, the squadron proved its worth as an offensive arm delivering decisive firepower on numerous occasions. During Kargil conflict, the Squadron undertook missions for airfield sanitization against ANEs. The squadron also has the proud privilege of being deployed overseas twice as a part of UN Peace Keeping Missions in Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of Congo. OP Khukri, Sake Crisis, capture of Ndrele, crisis at Marabo & Aru and defense of Goma are the occasions which stands testimony to this fact. In June 2015, the Gladiators traversed across the country to North East for “OP Vajra”. In January 2016, the Squadron played a stellar role in confining the terrorists to a restricted area during the terror attack on Air Force Station Pathankot. The Squadron was awarded with citation by the Chief of Air Staff on 08 Oct 2012. The Squadron was also conferred with the President’s Standards on 03 Mar 2017 at Air Force Station Tambaram.
Aircraft Types operated over the years: |
Commanding Officers | |||||
31 Dec 83 - 13 Apr 86Wing CommanderRavindra Vikram Singh9524 GD(P)COPathankot | 14 Apr 86 - 27 Nov 87Wing CommanderSuresh Chandra Malhan11579 GD(P)COPathankot | 28 Nov 87 - 25 Jun 89Wing CommanderVikram Singh Ranawat12390 GD(P)COPathankot | | | |
06 Jun 94 - 18 Aug 94Wing CommanderRajbir Singh14287 F(P)COPathankot | 07 Sep 94 - 26 Sep 96Wing CommanderRavi Dhar14559 F(P)COPathankot | | 16 Jun 98 - 11 Jun 00Wing CommanderBimal Varan Baduni16397 F(P)COPathankot | | |
| 08 May 06 - 21 Oct 08Wing CommanderDeep Raj Sirohi19517 F(P)COPathankot | | 24 Jun 13 - 15 May 15Group CaptainJasdeep Singh Sandhu20463 F(P)COPathankot |