No. 8 Squadron IAF

No. 8 Squadron
Active	1 December 1942 - Present
Country	Republic of India
Branch	Indian Air Force
Role	Fighter
Garrison/HQ	Bareilly AFS
Nickname(s)	"Eight Pursoots"
Motto(s)	Surakshya Va Akraman Offense is Defence
Aircraft flown
Fighter	Sukhoi Su-30MKI

No. 8 Squadron (Eight Pursoots) is a fighter squadron and is equipped with Su-30MKIs and based at Bareilly AFS.

History

No. 8 Squadron were formed in 1943 at Tiruchirapalli and were trained at Peshawar and Bhopal. On 2 December 1943, they were moved to Doublemooring in Chittagong (now in Bangladesh) to work closely together with No. 82 Squadron RAF in the Burma Campaign. Equipped with Spitfires they had significant success against the Japanese Imperial Army.

Assignments

• Burma Campaign
• Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
• Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

Aircraft

Aircraft	From	To	Air Base
Pre-Independence (1942–47)
Vultee A-31 Vengeance 1A	August 1943	November 1944	Tiruchirappalli
Supermarine Spitfire V	December 1944	January 1945
Harvard IIB	July 1944	January 1951
Supermarine Spitfire XIV	November 1944	June 1946
Post-Independence (1947–Present)
Hawker Tempest II	April 1947	December 1951
Vampire FB52	December 1951	June 1953
Vampire T55	June 1953	February 1957
Dassault Ouragan	November 1953	February 1957
Dassault Mystère IV	February 1957	February 1969
MiG-21 FL	February 1969	February 2010	Bagdogra, Tezpur
Sukhoi Su-30 MKI	February 2010	Present	AFS Bareilly