Mudh-Nyoma Airbase:
The Chief of the Air Staff recently inaugurated the Mudh-Nyoma airbase in Ladakh by landing a C-130J special operations aircraft there.
- It is an Indian Air Force (IAF) base located in Nyoma, in southeastern Ladakh.
- It is located at a height of 13,700 feet and is 23 km from the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.
- Nyoma is the fourth IAF base in Ladakh, the highest airfield in the country, and the fifth highest in the world now.
- It lies close to the southern bank of the Pangong Tso and earlier had a mud-paved landing ground.
- The responsibility of upgrading the airbase was entrusted to the Border Roads Organisation (BRO). The work began in September 2023.
- It underwent a ₹230 crore upgrade, which included extending the original airstrip into a 2.7 km ‘rigid pavement’ runway, a new ATC complex, hangars, a crash bay, and accommodation.
- The airfield is designed to house a number of military unmanned, rotary-wing, fixed-wing aircraft, including heavier transport planes, like the C-17 Globemaster III, and fighter jets, like the Sukhoi-30MKI.
- The infrastructure at the airbase includes necessary facilities for maintenance and sustaining air and ground crews, essential for operations in a region where winter temperatures can plummet to below minus 20°C.
