Warbirds of India

This MiG-23UM was installed at No.23 Equipment Depot in Deolali Cantonment. The aircraft was inaugurated by the AOC-in-C Maintenance Command. Photo : Sainik Samachar

Deolali was originally a British Military Camp on the outskirts of Nasik.It is home to one of the Artillery arm's Center and houses the School of Artillery. Also located in Deolali is No. 25 Equipment Depot of the Indian Air Force.

This MiG-27 ML TS-539 at the HAL Museum at Ozhar is the largest pole mounted warbird in India. Picture Courtesy of Sandeep Unnithan

Situated outside the town of Nasik, The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited's factory, HAL Ozhar has manufactured nearly 600 MiG-21s of FL, M and Bis variants over the years. In addition to the MiG-21, some 165 examples of the MiG-27 were also built. Currently the factory is gearing up to manufacture the Sukhoi-30 MKI. All the aircraft built are test flown from the Ozhar airfield which is attached to the area. Over the years the HAL Factory had also overhaulted hundreds of MiGs including MiG-23BNs, MiG-29s and MiG-23MFs.