Introduction

Army aviation corps was formed on 01 November 1986, the Army aviation training which was previously carried out at the 665 Army Aviation Squadron (R&O) under aegis of School of Artillery, is now carried out in an independent Combat Army Aviation Training School at Nashik Road.

The Cheetah Helicopter Simulator has been set up at the Combat Army Aviation Training School (CATS) at Nashik. It has been introduced at the initial ground training stage of the pilot training, and is expected to substantially reduce costs and risks of pilot training. The trainee pilots of the AAC will be exposed to different weather conditions like rain, snow, storms and of different terrains in addition to night flying, training in handling emergencies, tactical handling of the flying machine, its different maneuvers and more. The project to install a simulator was proposed in December 2000 and approved in April 2002, with CATS Nashik chosen as the centre for installation.

Organisation

This a partial list of the Corps' Army Aviation Squadrons. Each squadron generally consists of two to three Recce & Observation Flights, which can be interchanged depending on operational requirements. The flights do not lose their identity even when they form part of a squadron. However the term Air Observation Post (AOP) is no longer used in the Corps and has been replaced with the term Recce & Observation (R&O).