IAF Fighter Pilots in the USA - Air Marshal Philip Rajkumar

I was commissioned in Nov 62 and flew Toofanis in 47 Sqn (then based at Baghdogra) before proceeding to the US in Apr 64 for gunnery training on the F-86F Sabre of Korean war fame. I had 380 hrs in my logbook. We spent one month at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas undergoing an English language course. It was a great holiday for a 22 year old! We were a batch of 8 pilots, 5 from Toofani squadrons and 3 from Vampire 52 Squadrons. After Lackland we went to Randolph AFB also at San Antonio for conversion on the T-33A trainer. In June we moved to Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, Nevada for air to air and air to ground gunnery, bombing and rocketry training first on the T-33A followed by more or less the same syllabus on the F-86F Sabre.

The Sabre was a marvellous machine designed by the legendary Lee Atwood of North American Aircraft Corporation who had designed the Harvard Trainer and P-51 Mustang during World War II and the F-100 Super Sabre in the 50’s. The Sabre was a delight to fly with excellent handling qualities, manoeuvrability, cockpit visibility and lethal gun armament. 6 X .50 Cal machine guns with 1800 rounds of ammo gave it 15 secs of firing time! Whew! The J-47GE-27 engine with 6000 lbs thrust did not give it much vertical manoeuvre capability but automatic Leading Edge Slats which popped out at 150 kts and below gave it a very small turning radius. A slow speed engagement with a F-86F was a sure route to heaven as the spread of the 6 X .50 cal guns would ensure a kill.

I returned in Sep 64 with 50 hrs on T-33A and 25 hrs on the F-86 immeasurably richer in skills and confidence and was posted to 1 squadron at Adampur, which was a Mystere IV A squadron. Wg Cdr OP Taneja was the CO. Out of the 25 or so pilots who had flown the F-86 upto Sep 64, about 14 were posted to Mystere squadrons and the rest to Gnat squadrons. Gnat squadrons were dogged by poor serviceability and unreliable gun armament. The 2 X 30 mm Aden guns jammed frequently due to the crossed ammo belt feed mechanism. If my memory serves me right not even one F-86 experienced pilot was posted to a Hunter squadron. At that time the finest fighter in the IAF inventory was undoubtedly the Hunter 56. The Hunter jockeys were considered the crème de la crème of the fighter world and we poor Mystere Wallahs were considered lesser mortals!


Two photographs from Air Marshal Rajkumar's album. On the left is a F-86F on the flight line at Nellis, AFB and on the right is Air Marshal Rajkumar as a Pilot Officer, wearing a parachute and standing in front of the 4521st Combat Crew Training Squadron's board.

In Mystere squadrons we were put through the ops syllabus, which included 5-6 sorties of 1 vs 1 ACM training (dog fights) and a few sorties of High Level Tctical formation of 4 aircraft with one attacker called the bouncer. Spotting the bouncer was all important to decide on the direction of the initial turn into the attacker. Subsequent reversal of the hard turn once the attacker had committed to a section of 2 aircraft out of the 4 aircraft was also taught and practiced. That was almost all the ACM training we had received when the balloon went up in April 65 with the Kutch incursion by Pak tanks. We were hurriedly put through the rest of the day operational syllabus and declared fully ops day. Thereafter I did 3 night sorties in the Mystere before being declared fully ops day and night. On 1 Sep 65 I had 574 hours in my logbook with about 110 hours on the Mystere.

I was one of the lucky ones of my seniority to fly 22 operational missions during the 16 days of action that the Adampur squadrons were involved in. My very first operational sortie and easily the most memorable, was the 4 aircraft day light raid over Sargooha on 07 Sep 65. I was No4 (tail end charlie) on that mission and swore that I would only run at very low level <100ft above ground level at high speed if bounced by Sabres enroute to target or during the return leg. In level flight at low altitudes at full throttle the F-86 was unable to close in on a Mystere running at full bore. The F-86 F’s turning characteristics were well disseminated by the F-86 fliers in all the Mystere squadrons. We avoided engagements with F-86’s as the Mystere was no match for it in terms of manoeuvrability and it had no excess power to use the vertical plane.

In Sep 65 we had a Chief of the Air Staff (Air Marshal Arjan Singh) who was only 46 years old. By and large the whole IAF was younger than him. We had a young IAF. The air war was for the most part fought by pilots who were less than 35 years of age. A fair number like myself and the present Chief of the Air Staff (Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy) were less than 25 years. We were, perhaps inexperienced and inadequately trained, but history will record that the IAF thwarted Pakistan’s designs to grab Jammu & Kashmir by force of arms. And that is the bottom line.