Armament Training Wing Date Raised : 1951-04-01 Disbanded : 1978-04-21 Location : Jamnagar After Independence, the IAF setup the Armament Training Wing for Air to Ground and Air to Air Armament training. It had an air to ground range at Sarmat and and air to air range in gulf of Kutch near the coastal strip of Jodhya - Balachandi. The ATW had a staff of PAIs (Pilot Attack instructors) who conducted the training. It has no aircrafts of its own except a few Dakotas. The ATW staff was considered the cream the fighter pilots. In 1957-58 a PAI School (Pilot Attack Instructors) was formed to train instructors. A new Air to Air range was bought into Gulf of Arabia. In 1964, a new operational Conversion Units (OCU) was formed with Hunter aircraft. the PAI school was closed in 1975. OCU moved out and TACDE moved in. On 22 April 1978, ATW was converted into a operational wing by the name of 33 Wing.
Aircraft Types operated over the years: |
Commanding Officers | |||||
01 Apr 51 - 11 Oct 52Wing CommanderPadam Singh Gill1656 GD(P)Stn CdrJamnagar | 12 Oct 52 - 05 Oct 55Wing CommanderSidney Basil Noronha1735 GD(P)Stn CdrJamnagar | 06 Oct 55 - 15 Jun 58Wing CommanderKeki Nadirshah Gocal1764 GD(P)Stn CdrJamnagar | 01 Jul 58 - 09 Feb 60Group CaptainOm Prakash Mehra1639 GD(P)Stn CdrJamnagar | | |
24 Apr 63 - 14 Jan 64Group CaptainPothery Charuvary Ramachandran3514 GD(P)Stn CdrJamnagar | 15 Jan 64 - 09 Oct 66Group CaptainGeorge Henry King2386 GD(P)Stn CdrJamnagar | 10 Oct 66 - 03 Apr 68Group CaptainShamrao Ramrao Powar3100 GD(P)Stn CdrJamnagar | 04 Apr 68 - 01 Mar 72Group CaptainPeter Maynard Wilson3590 GD(P)Stn CdrJamnagar | 02 Mar 72 - 05 Jan 75Group CaptainSurapati Bhattacharya3974 GD(P)Stn CdrJamnagar | |
06 Jan 75 - 14 Mar 76Group CaptainSurendra Kumar Mehra4197 GD(P)Stn CdrJamnagar | 15 Mar 76 - 01 Jan 78Group CaptainMohinder Singh Bawa4494 GD(P)Stn CdrJamnagar |