IAF » DATABASE » UNITS

No.16 Squadron Black Cobras

Motto : Praharodata (Ready to Strike)
Location : Gorakhpur
16 Squadron was formed in 1950 at Pune with the Spitfire/ Tempest Aircraft as a light bomber squadron of the Western Air Command. The squadron was re-equipped in 1954 with liberator aircraft. In 1957, Canberra bomber aircraft joined the "COBRA" and the role was redefined as Bombing and interdiction. In 1962 the squadron moved to Kalaikunda where it took part in the 1965 war. After the war it moved to Gorakhpur where it was re-equipped with Jaguar aircraft.
Aircraft Types operated over the years:

Commanding Officers


26 Apr 54 - 02 Apr 56
Squadron Leader
George Victor Francis
2925 GD(P)
CO
Pune

07 Jan 57 - 01 Mar 57
Squadron Leader
Amit Singh Bakhshi
3323 GD(P)
CO
Pune

01 Mar 57 - 04 Nov 57
Wing Commander
Phiroz Mehta
1715 GD(P)
CO
Pune

08 Nov 57 - 31 Jan 61
Wing Commander
Jaspal Singh
2451 GD(P)
CO
Pune

01 Feb 61 - 02 Jan 64
Wing Commander
Surinder Singh
3009 GD(P)
CO
Pune/ Kalaikunda

10 Jan 64 - 16 Jul 66
Wing Commander
Peter Maynard Wilson
3590 GD(P)
CO
Kalaikunda/ Gorakhpu

18 Jul 66 - 15 Aug 69
Wing Commander
Mandokollathur Gopalaswamy Ramachandra
4033 GD(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

16 Aug 69 - 03 Mar 72
Wing Commander
Padmanabha Gautam
4482 GD(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

03 Mar 72 - 29 Mar 72
Wing Commander
Purnchandra Madhavrao Takle
4707 GD(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

01 May 72 - 28 Feb 74
Wing Commander
Jyoti Prosad Gupta
4333 GD(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

06 Jan 75 - 08 Feb 76
Wing Commander
Kollagunta Sambamurthi Chandrasekar
4962 GD(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

23 Feb 76 - 03 Dec 77
Wing Commander
Narendra Narayan Ubgade
4878 GD(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

04 Dec 77 - 07 Apr 80
Wing Commander
Rabindar Nath Kharbanda
5589 GD(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

08 Apr 80 - 28 Mar 82
Wing Commander
Chandrakant Nijanand Bal
7401 GD(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

29 Mar 82 - 01 Jul 84
Wing Commander
Girish Chandra Mehra
8664 GD(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

02 Jul 84 - 09 Nov 86
Wing Commander
Allandur Sulochanan Gurunathan
10443 GD(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

10 Nov 86 - 09 Oct 88
Wing Commander
Gurnam Singh Choudhary
11870 GD(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

10 Oct 88 - 24 Dec 90
Wing Commander
Ajit Keshav Agtey
12188 GD(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

24 Dec 90 - 15 Jun 92
Wing Commander
Norman Anil Kumar Browne
13129 F(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

15 Jun 92 - 04 Oct 93
Wing Commander
Shyamlal Ghosh
13625 F(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

04 Oct 93 - 28 Dec 95
Wing Commander
Prakul Kumar
14093 F(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

28 Dec 95 - 19 Jan 98
Wing Commander
Ramesh Rai
14669 F(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

19 Jan 98 - 06 Mar 00
Wing Commander
Rakesh Anand
15873 F(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

06 Mar 00 - 28 Apr 02
Wing Commander
Sandeep Puri
16574 F(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

29 Apr 02 - 18 Oct 04
Wing Commander
Rajeev Hora
17141 F(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

18 Oct 04 - 01 Oct 06
Wing Commander
Ashutosh Chandra Chopra
18555 F(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

12 Oct 06 - 05 Oct 08
Wing Commander
C Subramaniam
20122 F(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

06 Oct 08 - 08 Aug 10
Wing Commander
Sanjeev Sethi
21221 F(P)
CO
Gorakhpur

29 Oct 18 -
Group Captain
S K Singh

CO
Gorakhpur
The URL for this page is http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Database/Units/16 Sqn&init=on
Note: All the data available here is publicly available in the Gazette of India, published by the Indian Government, or from public domain sources, press releases about Awards and Right-To-Information (RTI) Requests. Additionally data shared by veterans is added to the page with permission. No data with respect to serving officers below the rank of AVM is displayed. Information in Gazette of India and Award citations and photographs as released by the Indian Air Force are the only details displayed.