INS Parundu | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Naval Air Station | ||||||||||
| Operator | Indian Navy | ||||||||||
| Location | NearUchipuli,Ramanathapuram,Tamil Nadu | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 09°19′26″N78°58′22″E / 9.32389°N 78.97278°E /9.32389; 78.97278 | ||||||||||
 Interactive map of INS Parundu | |||||||||||
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INS Parundu is an Indiannaval air station located nearUchipuli in theRamanathapuram of the state ofTamil Nadu.[1] It operates under theEastern Naval Command of the Indian Navy.[2][3] The air station will be opened up for civilian flights under Phase 2 of theRegional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) of the Government of India also known asUDAN and theAirports Authority of India (AAI) has started preparatory work at the airstrip.[4] It is sandwiched betweenRameswaram National Highway Road and Railway track which leads towards Rameswaram.
The airfield inRamanathapuram was previously the abandoned Ramnad Civil Aerodrome. Naval aviation first utilised the facilities in 1982, to monitor thePalk Strait in the wake of theSri Lankan Civil War.
The facilities were fully transferred to the Navy on 9 June 1985, and the naval air station was initially commissionedINS Rajali II.
On 26 March 2009, the base was renamed and commissioned asINS Parundu, for theTamil word for aneagle. The facilities have since been upgraded to operate larger aircraft. It is primarily used by the navy as a reconnaissance station to monitor the South EastBay of Bengal, the northernIndian Ocean, theGulf of Mannar and thePalk Strait.
On 25 August 2017, an Integrated Automatic Aviation Meteorological System (IAAMS) was added.[5]
The primary units based at INSParundu areIndian Naval Air Squadrons (INAS) that operateHAL Chetak helicopters andIslander reconnaissance aircraft.
Besides upgrading the runway, the Navy has installed dedicated facilities to operate UAVs from the air station.[1][6]INAS 344, operatingIAI Heron andIAI Searcher Mk II UAVs is based at INS Parundu.[7][8]
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