Ministry of External Affairs

  August 1947 to present

  India

TYPE: Government body

IATA/ICAO CODES: Nil

HEADQUARTERS: New Delhi, India

FORMER NAME: Nil

FATE: Active

In March 1963, the CIA was interested in forming an associated airborne type project in India with the Indians to conduct clandestine operations in Chinese-occupied Tibet. India became receptive to the offer following the 1962 Sino-Indian war, and the Agency proposed to quickly get the operation off the ground using several C-46D's readily available from USAF surplus at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ. When that opportunity began to materialize, the Agency gave SAT (Southern Air Transport) of Miami, FL a contract to perform maintenance on the C-46D's to be flown to India for the project. While the overhaul of the aircraft was outsourced to Intermountain Aviation in Marana, AZ, SAT organized the maintenance of the aircraft in India, by sending teams of engineers there. SAT also received the contract to ferry all of the Commandos to India. Air America Inc. from Tachikawa, Japan temporary loaned two Commandos and two Helio Couriers to the project, along with American pilots to instruct the Indians on the Commandos. Air Asia Co. Ltd., yet another CIA front company located in Tainan, Taiwan and Intermountain Aviation shared the maintenance responsibilities in India for the project.

An abandonned RAF WWII airstrip was chosen for the program: the airfield of Charbatia, Odisha, India was refurbished and equipped with a hard-surfaced runway. The base served as headquarters for the ARC (Aviation Research Center), an arm of India's Research and Analysis Wing, India's primary foreign intelligence agency. ARC had been founded on 7 September 1963 to operates intelligence collection aircraft into China and Pakistan with technical support from the CIA. All Commandos assigned to the ARC actually belonged to the Ministry of External Affairs, which oversaw the whole operation under codename Oak Tree. Head of the C-46 conversion team at Charbatia was Bill Welk, assisted by M.D. Johnson, Al Judkins, Maurice Clough, Connie Seigrist and Tom Sailor from Air America. A team of maintenance engineers headed by Kent Williamson was deployed to Charbatia to train the Indian operations and maintenance personnel. These would receive ground school and line maintenance training until they were capable of managing the aircraft themselves. ARC trained agents for infiltration into Tibet, to resupplied them at launch sites along the border, installed sensors on high mountain tops close to the border, and later to installed wiretaps. In 1966, other ARC air bases like Doom Dooma, Assam and Sarsawa, Uttar Pradesh were added for special operations.

Later aircraft used by the ARC for intelligence collection included Russian airplanes and helicopters, followed by Boeing 727's and Gulfstream III's. CIA support to the overall project slowly waned, eventually coming to an end in 1972 when US President Nixon established official diplomatic relations with Communist China.

August 1963 to February 1970

All 22 Ministry of External Affairs Commandos were operated through the ARC for the Research and Analysis Wing. There were three distinct groups of Commandos procured:

1. August 1963: two Commandos leased from Air America to start the operations. These were returned to Air America in August 1964: VT-DRH & -DRI;
2. February 1964 to April 1965: a first batch of ten Commandos coming from US surplus. These transited through a front company called Marathon Aviation Corporation, and were assigned FAA registrations N10701 to N10710. They were overhauled by Intermountain Aviation in Marana, AZ and then ferried to India by SAT: VT-DRM to -DSA;
3. December 1967 to May 1969: a second batch of eleven Commandos also coming from US surplus. They transited through Marathon, and then through another front company called Tradewinds Cargo Inc., and were assigned random FAA registrations. A mention is made about them flying to AIIMF [?] in Miami, FL, assigned to Air International Corporation [to be clarified]. They were overhauled by Intermountain Aviation in Marana, AZ and ferried to India: VT-DVN to -DYZ. The last one of them did not make it to India, crashing in Bermuda during the ferry.

One of ARC's Commandos was transformed by CIA technicians into an electronic intelligence (ELINT) platform in 1964, and subsequently flew regularly along the Himalayas recording Chinese telecommunication signals from inside Tibet. Some of the remaining Commandos received rocket boosters in 1964, installed on the bottom of the fuselage to permit takeoff from some of India’s highest airfields with heavy loads. All ARC Commandos bore Indian civilin markings.

The Commandos were eventually replaced by Antonov An2 biplanes and Mil Mi4 helicopters. All of them were transferred back to the USAF on 28 February 1970, however it is likely that either due to the condition of these aircraft or the fact that they were obsolete, the USAF never bothered to come and get them. As a result, all of them are presumed abandonned and later broken up in India, with the exception of VT-DRN which in displayed outdoors at Sarsawa Air Force Station, Uttar Pradesh, India.

• Curtiss C-46D-10-CU Commando: VT-DRM, VT-DRN, VT-DRU, VT-DVN, VT-DVO, VT-DVP, VT-DVQ, VT-DVR, VT-DWS, VT-DWY, VT-DWZ
• Curtiss C-46D-15-CU Commando: VT-DRI, VT-DRT, VT-DRV, VT-DRY, VT-DRZ, VT-DSA, VT-DYX, VT-DYZ (NTU)
• Curtiss TC-46D-15-CU Commando: VT-DRO
• Curtiss C-46D-20-CU Commando: VT-DRH, VT-DRX, VT-DYY