Air Stations

INS Garuda

The Eagle, which swept through the pages of Indian Mythology, lends its name to this very first Indian Naval Air Station. This is where it all started. The first Sealand aircraft for the Fleet Requirement Unit (FRU) was taken over in the UK on 13 January 1953. It thus became an urgent necessity for the Navy to build up an air establishment with an airfield and adequate infrastructure facilities to house and operate the FRU.

Short Sealand amphibian aircraft pioneered Indian Naval Aviation. Water landing off Kochi

The aviation facilities at Kochi were taken over from DGCA on 01 January 1953 and commissioned as INS Venduruthy II. INS Venduruthy II was only a temporary designation for the air station, as it operated as a separate establishment under COMCHIN. Few days after taking over of the airfield on 4 February 1953, the first aircraft Sealand IN 101, acquired for the FRU, touched down at Cochin naval airfield.

Indian Navy eventually acquired ten Sealand aircraft