UPDATE: Indian Airforce Base in Tajikistan

[Kickstarter101]

Dec 27, 2015

Picture for Representation – Sukhoi 30 MKI

Farkhor Air Base is a military air base located near the town of Farkhor in Tajikistan, 130 kilometres (81 mi) south east of the capital Dushanbe.It is operated by the Indian Air Forcein collaboration with the Tajikistan Air Force. Farkhor is India’s first and only military base outside its territory. Following Pakistan’s ban of Indian overflights, India started operating the Farkhor base in May 2002, with Russian acquiescence, to support Indian relief and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.

Location on Map


How it Started :
In 1996-97, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) started negotiations with Tajikistan to use the Farkhor Airbase to transport high-altitude military supplies to the Afghan Northern Alliance, service their helicopters and gather intelligence. At that time, India operated a small military hospital in the Farkhor region. The hospital at Farkhor was used to treat Afghan Northern Alliance members injured in fighting with the Taliban, including military leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was rushed there after the suicide attack against him.

In 2002, India acknowledged that it was setting up an airbase in Farkhor. It was secured with assistance from Russia. The airbase was in a dilapidated condition and was not used since the 1980s. The Indian Government awarded a $10 million tender to a private builder in 2003 to restore the airbase by 2005. After the builder defaulted, the Border Roads Organisation stepped in to complete the work. The hospital was later shut down and replaced with the India-Tajikistan Friendship Hospital at another location. Currently no credible information about activities at Farkhor is available.

Farkhor Airbase

Ayni Airbase

In Use :
India is quietly using the Ayni air base in Tajikistan, hosting a contingent of helicopters and fighter jets in cooperation with Russia, an Indian journalist reports. Saurav Jha, writing in World Politics Review (subscription required, but free trial available), while the Tajikistan government has denied that it would allow anyone but Russia to use the base, the truth is otherwise:

However, an Indian official directly involved in renovating the airfield told World Politics Review that an Indian air force contingent, including Indian Mi-17 helicopters and a Squadron of MiG 29’s, is currently deployed to the base under joint Indo-Tajik control.

India has spent almost $70 million, including equipment costs, to completely repave and extend the runway at Ayni, set up air traffic control and perimeter fencing and build three hardened shelters — all, the Indian official confirmed, with an eye to supporting fighter-jet operations.

Indian Airforce MiG 29


Strategic Importance :
The Farkhor Air Base would give the Indian military the required depth and range in seeking a larger role in the Indian Subcontinent and is a tangible manifestation of India’s move to project its power in Central Asia, a policy goal formally enunciated in 2003–2004.

The potential implications of this base go far beyond the Indo-Pakistani rivalry on the subcontinent. Pakistan fears being encircled by India with the base in Farkhor operational. Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf raised concerns to the Tajik government of the fact that Indian planes if stationed there would be able reach Pakistan within minutes using the air base.

IAF has one AFB at Farkhor which has only IAF helos and has been the subject of much debate, a second base at Ayani has been allocated to IAF secretly and the IAF has helos and fighters stationed here. Additionally India has a tri-service military hospital( aswell as at Farkhor AFB) in the Tajik capital-Dushanbe, additionally the Indian army is setting up a mountain warfare training centre in Tajikistan for joint training. DRDO has also made inroads in building a torpedo training lake in Tajikistan.

 

[Kickstarter101]

Guys whats this about the DRDO Torpedo training lake in Tajikistan?

 

[halupridol]

Guys whats this about the DRDO Torpedo training lake in Tajikistan?

vacation destination for DRDO employees

 

[Bagha]

India's Second chance in Asia’s cockpit
As negotiations for the withdrawal of international security forces in Afghanistan by 2014 gather pace, India has decided to revive its only overseas military base in Farkhor, Tajikistan. Officials from the Ministry of External Affairs will travel there next month to finalise arrangements, following which Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon is expected to visit India in September.

The revival of the Farkhor airbase and the upgrading of the military hospital on its premises, where former Northern Alliance leader and ‘Lion of Panjshir’ Ahmed Shah Massoud was treated for his fatal injuries from the suicide bomb attack on September 9, 2001 — two days before the September 11 incidents in America — is a crucial link to India’s revamped Connect Central Asia policy unveiled in June at a dialogue forum in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, by Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed.

With India’s risk-averse corporate community unwilling to follow the government’s lead in establishing a firmer footprint in the region since the break-up of the Soviet Union 20 years ago, Delhi has come to the conclusion that it must use its own muscle to project its strategic presence in Central Asia.

Much has already been written about this hydrocarbon-rich region and how China, Russia and U.S.-dominated western consortiums have laid networks of oil-and-gas pipelines to service their own markets. China, especially, has used energy supplies from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to fuel its relentless rise as an economic power – but the truth is that none of these benignly authoritarian regimes are complaining.

Kazakhstan has leveraged the sale of its energy resources to become, with a per-capita GDP of $13,000 in purchasing power parity terms, the richest state in all of Central Asia. Astana, a windy city in the Siberian steppe, was transformed into the capital in 1997 by a diktat of its President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and today its skyline is littered with glass-and-gold-domed buildings. Divided by a river — the Ishim — that runs through the town, Astana has a Left Bank and a Right Bank, besides a glass-and-concrete pramid that doubles up as an exhibition space and a concert hall that looks like the Parthenon. Outsiders may wonder at the copycat Disneyland, but the Kazakhs are certainly not complaining.

Mr. Nazarbayev is hardly a latter-day version of Mohammed bin Tughlaq — who whimsically moved his capital from Delhi to the Deccan in the 14th century and then had to move it back — although he completely controls the state apparatus. Mr. Nazarbayev decided, when he came to Delhi for the Republic Day festivities in 2009, that 25 per cent of the Satpayev oil block will be given to OVL. Both China’s CNOOC and U.S.’ Chevron already had their share of Kazakh energy spoils and Mr. Nazarbayev wanted to expand options. (His wife is also believed to have been a follower of the Sathya Sai Baba, thereby adding to the India connection.)

That’s the general perception of India in Central Asia — that it is a rising regional power, not quite in the league of China but interesting to behold because of its enormous market, its incredible culture, its singular capacity to innovate and even its fractious democracy. India is not a priority, but it cannot be ignored.

Interestingly enough, a mirror-perception about Central Asia persists among the Indian elite. The land of Babur (Uzbekistan) and Bairam Khan (Turkmenistan) and Mirza Hiadar Dughlati (Kazakhstan) and Bedil (Tajikistan) is still cloaked in the mist of history and its combined 65 million population has largely been ignored. Although most Central Asian capitals are a couple of hours away from Delhi by air, the lack of connectivity by rail or road means that serious business interest is almost absent.

So China-Central Asia trade tips the scales at $29 billion and U.S.-Central Asia trade touches $26 billion while India-Central Asia trade stands at only $500 million (excluding investment in the Satpayev oil block and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India, or TAPI, gas pipeline, which will take five years to fructify). That’s why India must do things differently if it has to return to Central Asia.

Alongside the revival of the Farkhor airbase in Tajikistan and the upgrading of the defence relationship with Dushanbe, private hospital chains like Max are being persuaded to set up trauma centres — if not hospitals — in key cities all over the region. Plans are afoot to start an India-Central Asia university in Bishkek. An e-information technology network is on the cards, just like in key countries in Africa. Meanwhile, talks are on with a Russian channel with a treasure trove of Hindi films, perfectly dubbed into Russian, to expand broadcast all over Central Asia. From Raj Kapoor to Shahrukh Khan, Bollywood is still the key to open hearts and minds in Central Asia.

With the western withdrawal from Afghanistan on the cards, the Central Asian pot will boil further. India lost the opportunity to drive deep into the region when the Soviet Union collapsed 20 years, but it’s now getting a second chance.

Hopefully Delhi won’t mess it up again.

(Jyoti Malhotra is a Delhi-based journalist and recently visited Kazakhstan as a guest of its government.)
Second chance in Asia’s cockpit - The Hindu

Guys whats this about the DRDO Torpedo training lake in Tajikistan?

Lakes to test torpedoes ? What will they blow up fishing boats ?

 

[Kickstarter101]

vacation destination for DRDO employees

Lakes to test torpedoes ? What will be blow up fishing boats ?

View attachment 283894

Maybe, just maybe it could be a secret weapons testing facility built there to keep the prying Indian media and farmers with camera phones out of the way.

Large water bodies are needed for nuclear facility, especially if one is required for DEW weapons.

 

[farhan_9909]

Tajikistan already access Pakistani route for trade and eventually will further expand it

can pakistan force tajikistan to shut down the airbase?

 

[Kickstarter101]

Tajikistan already access Pakistani route for trade and eventually will further expand it

can pakistan force tajikistan to shut down the airbase?

Only if Pakistan can get China to put pressure on them, otherwise I doubt it. India Tajik relation is a long and strong one. We are strongly rooted there with multiple bases, hospitals, inteligence etc.

 

[Bagha]

Tajikistan already access Pakistani route for trade and eventually will further expand it

can pakistan force tajikistan to shut down the airbase?

Shutting down other's trade route and forcing them to do something will further isolate Pakistan. Pakistan will also lose it's connectivity to central asia.
And once the Chahbahar Port is complete , all these threats will fall on deaf ear.

Pakistan also doesn't have enough clout on Tajikstan to do this , you'll need Chinese help.

Now why would the Chinese help you ?

 

[Kickstarter101]

Pakistan also doesn't have enough clout on Tajikstan to do this , you'll need Chinese help.

Now why would the Chinese help you ?

^^ This

 

[JonAsad]

further isolate Pakistan

what do you mean by that?- how are we isolated to begin with?-

 

[ayesha.a]

Lakes to test torpedoes ? What will they blow up fishing boats ?

View attachment 283894

Torpedoes are frequently tested in lakes and dams. There are many advantages, including ease of recovery of the torpedo for further analysis and physical tests. India is also planning a heavy torpedo testing range in a lake in Kyrgistan:

Issyk-Kul - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

India to develop torpedo testing centre in Kyrgyzstan - The Hindu

Other lacustrine testing ranges:

Torpedo Testing Long Gone But Effects Remain | NBC Southern California

Secret Scotland - Loch Long Torpedo Range

Arrochar, Tarbet and Ardlui Heritage - History Of The Torpedo Range

Torpedo Town U.S.A. - Chapter 8

 

[Pulsar]

Pakistan now has to be wary of an IAF base in Tajikistan too what with the MiGs and later Su-30s raring to have a go on PAF airfields in the event of a future war with India! And the best part is that it cannot put the airfield out of action, it being on Tajikistan soil!!

 

[Kickstarter101]

Torpedoes are frequently tested in lakes and dams. There are many advantages, including ease of recovery of the torpedo for further analysis and physical tests. India is also planning a heavy torpedo testing range in a lake in Kyrgistan:

Issyk-Kul - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

India to develop torpedo testing centre in Kyrgyzstan - The Hindu

What? We may have a torpedo testing center in Kyrgyzstan? Do we have a lack of land in India lol?.

the best part is that it cannot put it out of action it being on Tajikistan soil!!

They will get hit back by Russia if they try. There are Russian bases there too along with ours.

 

[farhan_9909]

i don't agree

*Tajikistan already has invested on road of their side of the country for connection with Pakistan and if you follow KKH you will notice that apart from english amd chinese,the sign board now are also in tajik language(written like russian but farsi)

*For india to trade with tajikistan,it will first have to go through iran,turkmenistan,uzbekistan and than tajikistan and than ship the goods to mumbai port.

*We have half a million tajik in Pakistan involved in education and business activities.

*Pakistan has signed the deal for 1000mw electricity import with tajikistan and will further expand it.

 

[ayesha.a]

What? We may have a torpedo testing center in Kyrgyzstan? Do we have a lack of land in India lol?.

Lack of suitable water bodies. The few large inland lakes in India are all hot tourist destinations.

i don't agree

*Tajikistan already has invested on road of their side of the country for connection with Pakistan and if you follow KKH you will notice that apart from english amd chinese,the sign board now are also in tajik language(written like russian but farsi)

*For india to trade with tajikistan,it will first have to go through iran,turkmenistan,uzbekistan and than tajikistan and than ship the goods to mumbai port.

*We have half a million tajik in Pakistan involved in education and business activities.

*Pakistan has signed the deal for 1000mw electricity import with tajikistan and will further expand it.

*They don't have to choose between India and Pakistan. They can build roadways to connect with their neighbours, including Pakistan, and they can host military bases for friendly countries. India cannot ask them to cut off road connectivity with Pakistan, any more than Pakistan can ask them not to host Indian military bases.

*It's not exactly trade with Tajikistan that India is looking for. Tajikistan is not an economic giant, that investment in connectivity will bring huge benefits. It is rather to have a foothold in that crucial region. To be able to influence events by projecting some (even though modest) military power. It is the same reason why any other country build foreign bases.

*Good for them and you. As I said before, they don't need to choose between India and Pakistan. They will do whatever is in their interest, like any other country. Neither India nor Pak is strong enough to say "You are either with us or against us", like the USA can.

*Again, good for both. Same as above.