AFVOA Newletters of Year 2013

Page 60 of 61 THE ORIGINS OF BEL GHAZIABAD by Wg Cdr (Retd) KV Lakshminarayanan THE HINDU of July 1, 2013, under the heading "THIS DAY THAT AGE", dated July 1, 1963, carried an interesting news on MILITARY AID TO INDIA. This was a very important development following the Chinese aggression earlier that year. As per this news item, "the American President, Kennedy and the British Prime Minister. Macmillan agreed on the policy of continuing to help India by providing further military aid to strengthen her defences against the threat of renewed Chinese attacks, a joint communique at the end of their 24-hour world ranging talks said." I had just finished my post-graduate course in the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield and was posted in the Signals Directorate of Air Headquarters and I was associated with this aid programme. This US aid was a very significant milestone as far as our Air Force is concerned. The US and British teams had, after carrying out some combined exercises, recognized that our Air Defence ground environment was unsatisfactory. Our radar and communications systems were our weak links. Their aid in this sector was to provide six modern high power radars and an improved troposcatter communication system. This programme was given the code name STAR SAPPHIRE. As per this programme, we sent our technical officers and technicians to Keesler air base in the U.S. for training relating to the equipment involved. The US team concerned operated from DHARBANGA house in New Delhi. The first major activity was the selection of sites for the installation of these radars. The US team had their technical officers and from our side, we had representatives from E-in-C's branch to help in site survey and selection and related matters. Their site selection was very elaborate to ensure the best possible radar coverage. I had with me the relevant Survey of India maps. I was surprised that the US team had better quality maps of our country!! Many new things I learnt from them during our travels. For example, if a part of a tree is to be cut in the process of site selection, their guide manuals insisted that the cut portion of the tree had to be protected by applying a chemical to prevent fungus infection! We identified the sites from the eastern to the western end of the country and we had full cooperation from the Service Headquarters concerned as well as civil authorities. Needless to say, to make the travails pleasant, we had some aside activities, such as visit to Khaziranga rhino sanctuary on elephant back! After site selections, when the shipment of the equipment came, we had full cooperation from the railways to transport the equipment. Our officers and technicians installed the equipment with some assistance from the US teams. The US specialists also visited our training and maintenance facilities. Needless to say, I had very interesting interaction with them. I would like to recall one event relating to installation. The process involved erecting the heavy antenna on a structure. The US team wanted a heavy duty crane for this erection. We had no such crane. We were told that only the Railways have such cranes and it was not easy to procure and move them to the length and breadth of the country. The civil engineer in the US team, who happened to be of Yugoslavian origin and was aware of similar limitations, suggested that we fabricate a block and tackle system and use it to raise the antenna. It worked and we used the