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Pakistan Army Aviation Corps
Pakistan Army staff corps for Army Aviation From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Pakistan Army Corps of Aviation is a military administrative and combined arms service branch of the Pakistan Army.[1]
The Aviation Corps is tasked with configuration of all army aviation aircraft and provides principle close aerial combat support and aerial logistics for the Pakistan Army.[1]
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Overview
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The earliest use of aircraft by the army can be traced to the air observation posts (Air OP), where aeroplanes were used during the World War I to help artillery spotters (Forward Observation Officers) to locate and direct artillery fire to targets on the ground. This role was improved upon and further refined in the World War II. The Army Aviation wing of the Royal Air Force was established in India at in 1942. No. 656 Air OP Squadron (RAF), the first Air OP unit reached the Indian subcontinent in 1943 to assist the operations in the Burma campaign. Following the war, 659 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, which had played an important role as an air observation post unit and worked closely with Army units in artillery spotting and liaison was despatched to India on October 1945.[2] On 14 August 1947, No.659 (Air OP) Squadron was disbanded at Lahore (which was deployed there in support of the Punjab Boundary Commission) and partitioned between India and Pakistan.[3] After 1947 the Air OP Squadron became part of the Pakistan Air Force as "No.1 Air Observation Post Squadron" but was commissioned in the Pakistan Army after its personnel were trained and certified in the United States in 1958.: 32 [4][5] The Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering started to maintain the aircraft and helicopters given by the U.S. Army's Aviation Branch, opening its own aviation school in 1959.[6]
Since the 1960s, the corps expanded in momentum, manpower, and its operational scope has widened.[6] The Aviation Corps became a combat support branch when it inducted its first attack helicopters from Iran in 1970.[6] The Aviation Corps is commanded by an active-duty two star major-general, who serves as its director-general and functions directly under the Chief of the General Staff at the Army GHQ in Rawalpindi, Punjab.[7]
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Aircraft inventory
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The Pakistan Army Aviation currently operates (393) helicopters along with (268) fixed-wing aircraft.
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Retired Aircraft
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Notable accidents and incidents
- 2022 Pakistan Army helicopter incident– On 1st August a Pakistan Army Aviation helicopter, which was on flood relief operations in Lasbela area of Balochistan, lost contact with Air Traffic Control.[15][16][17][18]
- The six military personnel, including Commander XII Corps Lieutenant General Sarfraz Ali died in the crash.[19]
- Reports from Pakistani authorities on their early investigations attributed the crash to poor weather conditions, with fog being the main culprit, due to which the Helicopter crashed into a mountain.[19]
- 29 March 2022 – Eight UN peacekeepers, six Pakistanis, a Russian and a Serb, part of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were killed in a crash of a Puma helicopter operated by the Pakistan Army Aviation Corps while on a reconnaissance mission in the troubled eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Cause of the crash is yet to be ascertained.[20][21][22][23]
- 2019 Pakistan Army military plane crash
- 2015 Pakistan Army Mil Mi-17 crash
- 2009 Pakistan Army Mil Mi-17 crash
See also
References
External links
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