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END OF AN ERA

The Indian Navy will retire its last Ilyushin IL-38SD

Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft in October

By ATUL CHANDRA

he Indian Navy’s retirement of its Ilyushin IL-38SD Speaking to ADT, before the retirement of the IL-38SD from
(Sea Dragon) fleet on October 31 marks the end service, INAS 315’s Commanding Officer (CO), Commander
of an era in Indian naval aviation, one in which Mrinmoy Ghosh, said “the squadron has achieved many a
T two Russian aircraft types; the IL-38SD and the milestone during this journey and I will be aiming to take
giant Tupolev TU-142M (retired in March 2017) long range the Winged Stallions to greater glory and sign-off with the
maritime reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft patrolled India’s last Hoorah. Secondly my focus will be on keeping flight
maritime borders. safety at the forefront of all our flying operations and to
complete missions. We are flying critical and strategic
missions daily, supporting the Western Naval Fleet and
The first IL-38SD (IN 301) inducted into the navy was the Indian Navy.
decommissioned in January 2022 after 44 years of ser-
vice. This aircraft was commissioned into service in 1977
and had accumulated nearly 10,000 hours of operational With the retirement of the IL-38SD, the navy will be left
flying, by the time of its retirement. The last flight worthy with the Boeing P-8I as its sole LRMR and ASW aircraft,
IL-38SD (IN 307) will be phased out of service at the end of with a fleet of 12 operational aircraft. The Indian Navy had
October. Once phased out of service, the retired aircraft acquired its first batch of eight P-8I aircraft in 2013 and
will be donated to museums across India. these were stationed at INS Rajali, Arakkonam. The second
batch of four more aircraft were based at Indian Naval Air
Squadron 316, commissioned at INS Hansa.
Designed in the 1960’s, the IL-38 was a Soviet-era design
maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft Potent Platform
developed during the Cold War era and operated to great
effect by the Indian Navy, since the type was inducted into Equipped with sonobuoys, a magnetic anomaly detector
service in 1977 with Indian Naval Air Squadron 315 (INAS (MAD) boom, search radar, and other sensors, the IL-38
315) “Winged Stallions”, at INS Hansa in Goa, located on was primarily used to detect, track, and neutralize subma-
India’s Eastern Coast. rines and other underwater threats in addition to maritime
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