The Ambala Air Force Station is an Indian Air Force base situated north of the urban Ambala Cantt area in

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The Ambala Air Force Station is the home to the first batch of advance multirole fighter jet

Dassault Rafale The Dassault Rafale (, literally meaning "gust of wind", or "burst of fire" in a more military sense) is a French Twinjet, twin-engine, Canard (aeronautics), canard delta wing, Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft designed and ...

s that have been inducted to

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 Octob ...

History

In 1919 immediately after the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

(1914-18), first airstrip was built in Haryana when RAF Ambala was created and a Flying Instruction School (FIS) was formed here. On 1 April 1920,

No. 28 Squadron RAF Number 28 Squadron, also known as No. 28 (Army Co-operation) Squadron or No. 28 (AC) Squadron, is a squadron of the Royal Air Force. Based at RAF Benson, it serves as the RAF's Operational Conversion Unit for the Boeing Chinook HC5/6/6A heli ...

which was earlier disbanded in Britain on 20 January 1920, was reformed at RAF Ambala by renumbering 114 Squadron, an army cooperation squadron equipped with the

Bristol F2b Fighter The Bristol F.2 Fighter is a British First World War two-seat biplane Fighter aircraft, fighter and reconnaissance aircraft developed by Frank Barnwell at the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company later known as the Bristol Aeroplane Company. ...

. The squadron operated over the North-West Frontier, moving to

Kohat Kohat (; ) is a city that serves as the capital of the Kohat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is regarded as a centre of the Bangash tribe of Pashtuns, who have lived in the region since the late 15th century. With a population o ...

in December 1921. On 1st April 1938 just before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

(1939-45), Ambala was approved as the permanent Station Headquarters when some staff from the Drigh Road Karachi Airfield was moved to Ambala, including the

Pilot Officer Pilot officer (Plt Off or P/O) is a junior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. Pilot officer is the lowest ran ...

s Goyal, Arjan Singh and Prithipal Singh, and in June 1938 two squadrans were moved here, No. 1 Squadron IAF (The Tigers) - the oldest squadron of the Indian Air Force and

.Ambala-Independent India's first IAF station
iafhistory.in, accessed 3 Jul 2025. Royal Air Force units based at Ambala during

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

era included: *

No. 3 Squadron RAF Number 3 Squadron, also known as No. 3 (Fighter) Squadron, of the Royal Air Force operates the Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 from RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire, since reforming on 1 April 2006. It was first formed on 13 May 1912 as one of the first sq ...

between 1 April and 30 September 1921 without any aircraft * No. 5 Squadron RAF between 26 October 1922 and 10 March 1924 with the Bristol F.2B Fighter *

No. 20 Squadron RAF No. 20 Squadron is the Royal Air Force's Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) for ground-based Tactical Air Command and Control, and Air Battle Management. It is part of the RAF's Air Surveillance and Control System (ASACS) and is based at RAF ...

between 17 October 1921 and 24 October 1922 with the Bristol F.2B *

between 1 April 1920 and 15 October 1921 with the Bristol F.2B *

No. 31 Squadron RAF Number 31 Squadron, known as ''the Goldstars'', is a squadron of the Royal Air Force. The Squadron lays claim to being the first military unit to fly in India, where it was based from 1915 to 1947. Throughout the Cold War, No. 31 Squadron was ...

between 13 March 1924 and 15 December 1926 with the Bristol F.2B *

No. 60 Squadron RAF No. 60 Squadron of the Royal Air Force was formed in 1916 at HMS Sultan (shore establishment), Gosport. It is currently part of No. 1 Flying Training School RAF, No. 1 Flying Training School based at RAF Shawbury in Shropshire flying the Eurocop ...

between 3 March 1939 and 19 September 1940 with the

Bristol Blenheim The Bristol Blenheim is a British light bomber designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, which was used extensively in the first two years of the Second World War, with examples still being used as trainers until the end of the war. ...

I * No. 99 Squadron RAF between 15 June and 26 September 1919 with the Airco DH.9A * No. 114 Squadron RAF between 2 October 1919 and 1 April 1920 with the Bristol F.2B * No. 659 Squadron RAF between January 1946 and May 1947 with the

Taylorcraft Auster The Taylorcraft Auster was a British military liaison aircraft, liaison and observation aircraft produced by the Auster Aircraft, Taylorcraft Aeroplanes (England) Limited company during the Second World War. Design and development The Auster ...

V. After India's independence in August 1947, Ambala became independent India's first IAF station. In 1947, FIS Ambala was moved to

Tambaram Tambaram is a city located within the Chennai Metropolitan Area in the Indian State of Tamil Nadu. The city is governed by Tambaram City Municipal Corporation. Etymology Tambaram is an ancient town referred to as Taamapuram in an inscrip ...

near

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

, at

Tambaram Air Force Station Tambaram Air Force Station is an Indian Air Force airfield in Tambaram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-l ...

. In both the

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lynd ...

and

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

wars, Ambala Air Force Base was attacked by the Pakistani Air Force. In 1965, the Pakistanis struck Ambala and reportedly destroyed some 25 Indian planes just after they had returned from missions (the PAF did not initially claim any IAF aircraft during the attack on Ambala due to non-availability of damage in night bombing). Indian Air Force rejected the Pakistani claim and stated that no aircraft were lost in Ambala during the war. On Feb 26, 2019, for India's

2019 Balakot airstrike The 2019 Balakot airstrike was a bombing raid conducted by Indian warplanes on 26 February 2019 in Balakot, Pakistan, against an alleged training camp of the terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed. Open source satellite imagery revealed that no ta ...

in Pakistan, ''Mirage fighters'' took off from the Ambala air base, and the whole operation took 30 minutes. During 2020-21 covid pandemic,

MChS Rossii The Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief (full name in Russian: Министерство Российской Федерации по делам гражданской обороны, чрезвычайным ситуаци ...

flew to Ambala with relief supplies from Russia.

Assets

In 2018–19, Ambala Airforce station housed a squadron of

SEPECAT Jaguar The SEPECAT Jaguar is a British-French supersonic jet attack aircraft originally used by the British Royal Air Force and the French Air Force in the close air support and nuclear strike role. As of 2025, the Jaguar remains in service with the ...

of No. 5 Squadron IAF and No. 14 Squadron IAF, and aging MiG-21bis of No. 21 Squadron IAF (Ankush). In May 2020, the IAF became the house of the first batch of 36 latest

fighter jets at Ambala Air Force Station and

Hasimara Air Force Station Hasimara Air Force Station is an Indian Air Force (IAF) base located in Alipurduar district, West Bengal, India. Hasimara is located strategically near the Indo-Bhutan border. It is also the closest Indian air base to the Chumbi Valley - the tri-j ...

Ambala Domestic Airport

The foundation stone for the

civil enclave A joint-use airport is an aerodrome that is used for both military aviation and civil aviation. They typically contain facilities of both a civil airport and a military air base. By country India Visakhapatnam Airport operates as a civil enclav ...

at Ambala was laid in October 2023, on a 20 acre site next to the airforce base. Land for the civil enclave had been acquired from the ministry of defense for Rupees 133 crores, and another Rupees 40 crores were allocated for infrastructure, while Rupees 16 crore was set aside for construction of the terminal building. Security for the airport will be provided by the Haryana Police. The project was initially approved in December 2018 under the Central Government's

UDAN ''Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik'' (Hindi for "Let the common citizens of the country fly"), known by its acronym ''UDAN-RCS'' ('Udan' is Hindi for "flight") is a regional airport development program of the Government of India and part of the Regio ...

3.0 scheme but faced delays due to land acquisition issues. In March 2025, the domestic terminal is nearing completion, and it will soon start offering scheduled domestic flights on 42-seater

ATR 42 The ATR 42 is a regional airliner produced by Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR (aircraft manufacturer), ATR, with final assembly in Toulouse, France. On 4 November 1981, the aircraft was launched with ATR, as a joint venture between French Aér ...

Jammu Jammu () is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute ...

Srinagar Srinagar (; ) is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the tertiary ...

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

, and

Ayodhya Ayodhya () is a city situated on the banks of the Sarayu river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ayodhya district as well as the Ayodhya division of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ayodhya became th ...

.Good News for Haryana: Flights to Four Cities from Ambala Airport Coming Soon
theharyanastory.com, 24 Mar 2025.

References

Notes

Bibliography

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Citations

{{authority control Ambala Indian Air Force bases Airports in Haryana World War II sites in India 1940s establishments in India Military airbases established in the 1940s 20th-century architecture in India