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No. 1 Squadron (The Tigers), the oldest squadron of the Indian Air Force operates as a multirole (air superiority and electronic warfare) unit. Part of 40 Wing of the Indian Air Force under Central Air Command, it is based at Maharajpur in Gwalior.[1]

No. 1 Squadron
Active	1 April 1933 – May 1947 February 1953 – Present
Role	Air superiority Interdiction
Base	AFS Gwalior
Nickname(s)	Tigers
Motto(s)	Ekta Mein Shakti (Hindi: "Strength in Unity")
Engagements	Hur's Operations NWFP Burma Campaign Operation Polo Western Air War, 1965 Liberation War, 1971 Kargil War, 1999, Operation Parakram
Commanders
Current commander	Group Captain Hemant Kumar
Notable commanders	Subroto Mukerjee Arjan Singh Dilbagh Singh
Insignia
Identification symbol	A Royal Bengal Tiger
Aircraft flown
Fighter	Dassault Mirage 2000

History

The squadron was established at Drigh Road, Karachi on 1 April 1933, with four Westland Wapitis and five pilots: the sixth was deemed too short.[1][2][3] The pilots included Subroto Mukerjee.[2]

The squadron successfully test fired a BVR MICA missile from a Mirage-2000 aircraft on 24 September 2016.[4]

Aircraft

Aircraft	From	To	Air Base
Pre-Independence (1933–47)
Westland Wapiti IIA	May 1933	October 1941	Karachi[5][6]
Hawker Audax	September 1939	December 1941	Peshawar
Harvard IIB	October 1945	September 1947
Westland Lysander	September 1941	July 1942
Hawker Hurricane Mk 1	October 1942	May 1943	Trichy
Hawker Hurricane Mk IIB	May 1943	August 1944
Hawker Hurricane Mk IIC	July 1944	May 1946	Imphal
Harvard IIB	October 1945	May 1947	Peshawar
Spitfire VIII	December 1945	May 1947
Post-Independence (1953–Present)
Spitfire XVIII	February 1953	September 1953	AFS Halwara
Vampire FB52	March 1953	March 1957	AFS Palam
Dassault Mystère IVa	July 1957	1963	AFS Kalaikunda
	1963	June 1966	AFS Adampur
MiG-21 FL	July 1966	February 1986
Dassault Mirage 2000	February 1986	Present	AFS Gwalior

Commemorative Postal Stamp

Commemorative stamp was released by India Post in 1993.

References

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