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 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 | |||||
| Dates | Rank & Name | Number | Remarks | Location | Photo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Apr 54 to 02 Apr 56 | Squadron Leader George Victor Francis | 2925 GD(P) | CO | Pune |  |
| 07 Jan 57 to 01 Mar 57 | Squadron Leader Amit Singh Bakhshi | 3323 GD(P) | CO | Pune | |
| 01 Mar 57 to 04 Nov 57 | Wing Commander Phiroz Mehta | 1715 GD(P) | CO | Pune |  |
| 08 Nov 57 to 31 Jan 61 | Wing Commander Jaspal Singh | 2451 GD(P) | CO | Pune |  |
| 01 Feb 61 to 02 Jan 64 | Wing Commander Surinder Singh | 3009 GD(P) | CO | Pune/ Kalaikunda |  |
| 10 Jan 64 to 16 Jul 66 | Wing Commander Peter Maynard Wilson | 3590 GD(P) | CO | Kalaikunda/ Gorakhpu |  |
| 18 Jul 66 to 15 Aug 69 | Wing Commander Mandokollathur Gopalaswamy Ramachandra | 4033 GD(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 16 Aug 69 to 03 Mar 72 | Wing Commander Padmanabha Gautam | 4482 GD(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 03 Mar 72 to 29 Mar 72 | Wing Commander Purnchandra Madhavrao Takle | 4707 GD(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 01 May 72 to 28 Feb 74 | Wing Commander Jyoti Prosad Gupta | 4333 GD(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 06 Jan 75 to 08 Feb 76 | Wing Commander Kollagunta Sambamurthi Chandrasekar | 4962 GD(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 23 Feb 76 to 03 Dec 77 | Wing Commander Narendra Narayan Ubgade | 4878 GD(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 04 Dec 77 to 07 Apr 80 | Wing Commander Rabindar Nath Kharbanda | 5589 GD(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 08 Apr 80 to 28 Mar 82 | Wing Commander Chandrakant Nijanand Bal | 7401 GD(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 29 Mar 82 to 01 Jul 84 | Wing Commander Girish Chandra Mehra | 8664 GD(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 02 Jul 84 to 09 Nov 86 | Wing Commander Allandur Sulochanan Gurunathan | 10443 GD(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 10 Nov 86 to 09 Oct 88 | Wing Commander Gurnam Singh Choudhary | 11870 GD(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 10 Oct 88 to 24 Dec 90 | Wing Commander Ajit Keshav Agtey | 12188 GD(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 24 Dec 90 to 15 Jun 92 | Wing Commander Norman Anil Kumar Browne | 13129 F(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 15 Jun 92 to 04 Oct 93 | Wing Commander Shyamlal Ghosh | 13625 F(P) | CO | Gorakhpur | |
| 04 Oct 93 to 28 Dec 95 | Wing Commander Prakul Kumar | 14093 F(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 28 Dec 95 to 19 Jan 98 | Wing Commander Ramesh Rai | 14669 F(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 19 Jan 98 to 06 Mar 00 | Wing Commander Rakesh Anand | 15873 F(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 06 Mar 00 to 28 Apr 02 | Wing Commander Sandeep Puri | 16574 F(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 29 Apr 02 to 18 Oct 04 | Wing Commander Rajeev Hora | 17141 F(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 18 Oct 04 to 01 Oct 06 | Wing Commander Ashutosh Chandra Chopra | 18555 F(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 12 Oct 06 to 05 Oct 08 | Wing Commander C Subramaniam | 20122 F(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 06 Oct 08 to 08 Aug 10 | Wing Commander Sanjeev Sethi | 21221 F(P) | CO | Gorakhpur |  |
| 29 Oct 18 to | Group Captain S K Singh | CO | Gorakhpur | ||
The URL for this page is http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Database/Units/16 Sqn
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.