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The Mighty Garuda 
2020,Jul 09| 01:00 PM
Vipin Chaudhary
Hi guys, hope you all are doing well during this lockdown time. Just to make your day more interesting, We bring to you Garuda - The Mightiest bird that ever flew in the Indian Space.
But before all that like always I’ll tell you one more story. When we talk of the most secret Military Installations in the world, you will most probably think of the super secret Area 51, this is so secret that it don’t even exist on the maps. But for the time being, We’ll not talk of that now instead our own Trishul Airbase that used to be the home of our Garudas.
By now you would’ve started to judge me - Is this guy insane? One moment he talks of the birds the other moment he flips onto military bases. How are they even related?
Well here’s the catch.The Garuda that I’m referring to, isn’t the ancient mythological bird in Indian History but this beast.
Mig-25 Foxbat, Garuda
Yeah! The Mighty Mig-25 of Indian Air force, which has earned its respect as Garuda. Quite surprisingly this was the most disguised aircraft most probably in the entire Indian subcontinent. This jet was so classified that even the top officials of IAF didn’t knew of this jet in its active service.
The Introduction
Indian Air force had planned every tiniest thing to perfection, so disguised that not even the US, so called superpower of the contemporary world had even a smallest hint of Indian Garudas. The Garudas reached India from Soviet Union in the gigantic Antonov transport aircrafts that led the world to assume that India’s accumulating the Antonov’s in its inventory not the MIGs.
Trishul Airbase
Trishul Airbase would most possibly the last place someone would think that India will keep its MIGs, located in Bareilly's Izzatnagar its perhaps the most coveted airbase in India. It served as the home to the Garudas of IAF. They were brought here in dismantled condition in the Antonovs. Contemporary, Trishul Airbase is also home to Asia’s largest underground aircraft hanger, that made it the perfect camouflage for the Garudas.
Underground Aircraft Hanger
A Nightmare for Pakistan
IAF operated perhaps the smallest squadron of Mig-25s with just 8 in number. But these 8 jets served their purpose very well. They were used by IAF for the purpose of strategic reconnaissance.
While just a handful of people knew of its existence, the Mig-25 flew unquestionably over the Pakistani Airspace as Pakistan was neither capable of detecting such a jet and nor did they had any jet to intercept it, if somehow they even detect it.
One such routine flight was scheduled in May 1997 but this flight was not going to be a normal one. The jet entered the Pakistan airspace quietly at an altitude of 65,000 feet with a subsonic speed. After completing its task of mapping all the strategic assets of Pakistan on its way back home the jet crossed the sound barrier. It generated a sonic boom so strong enough to shake up the entire city of Islamabad under it.
But before Pakistan could even understand what’s happening and scramble its jets, Garuda was back home. Actually Garuda flew at Mach 3 i.e. thrice the speed of sound which was twice as fast as any Pakistani jet. And it flew at max altitude of 70,000 feet while no Pakistani jet could climb a single foot more than 50,000 feet. In short even the Pakistan’s best jet was not a match for the Garuda.
Mig-25,The unquestioned warrior
End of an Era
Mig-25 of Indian Air force finally bid adieu to the blue sky in May 2006 after serving the Nation for over two and a half decades. It was then only that that the Nation got to know about its unsung hero.
Such were the heroics of our Mig-25 Garuda. It was the jet that even Americans feared of. Had it not been the acts of traitor Victor Belenko, the results of Cold War would have been otherwise.
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