NGHAS (Next Generation Hardened Aircraft Shelters) are specialized structures made up of reinforced concrete, sand, and steel layers. They can withstand direct hits from a 2,000-pound bomb. These are fortified hangars used to store and defend military aircraft from enemy attack known as a hardened aircraft shelters (HAS) or protective aircraft shelters (PAS). Their employment is restricted to fighter-size aircraft because of cost and construction issues.
As opposed to active defenses, such as surface-to-air missiles, which seek to avoid or at the very least weaken enemy strikes, HASs are a passive defense strategy (i.e., they just reduce the impact of an attack)
History of HAS (Hardened Aircraft Shelters)
The widespread use of hardened aircraft shelters can be attributed to the lessons learned from Operation Focus in the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day War, in which the Israeli Air Force destroyed the unprotected Egyptian Air Force at its airfields and airbases, at the time the largest and most sophisticated air force in the Arab world.
Its most common use, as with many military items, whether structures, tanks, or aircraft, was during the Cold War. Hundreds of HASs were built across Europe by NATO and Warsaw Pact countries. Hardened aircraft shelters were built in this context to protect aircraft from conventional attacks as well as nuclear, chemical, and biological strikes. NATO shelters across the continent were built to withstand a direct hit by a 500 lb (226 kg) bomb or a near miss by a larger one (i.e., 1,000 lb+).
Advantages of HAS and NGHAS
- Reduces the aircraft’s susceptibility to all but the most precise precision weapons
- Offers defense against attacks using chemical weapons.
- Prevents satellite and aerial reconnaissance from determining the presence of airplanes.
- Allows for weather-tight and reasonably safe aircraft maintenance and turnaround.
- Increases the ability of the defender’s aircraft to survive and the cost to the enemy’s forces in eliminating them when combined with active airfield defenses.
- The efficiency of aircraft at both the squadron and air force levels is decreased by an alternate strategy, the dispersion of aircraft to numerous locations.
Disadvantages of HAS and NGHAS
- They’re in a set, recognized position.
- The cost of hardened shelters is high.
- Personnel of the air force is not protected by hardened aircraft shelters.
- Hardened shelters are typically too small to accept big aircraft, including strategic cargo planes and huge surveillance planes
India and NGHAS
The Indian Air Force is thought to have finished building next-generation hardened aircraft shelters (NGHAS) at the Chabua Air Force Station in Assam, close to the Chinese border. The specialized structures can withstand a 2000-pound bomb.
These structures are made up of reinforced concrete, sand, and steel layers. They can withstand direct hits from a 2,000-pound bomb. The Indian government approved the construction of 108 modern shelters to house fighter aircraft in forward areas near India’s northern borders in 2019.
This is significant in light of China’s massive infrastructure development in the Tibet Autonomous Region, which borders Arunachal Pradesh in India’s northeast. Since May 2020, the two countries have been locked in a border standoff. The majority of the hardened shelters were built to house Russian-made Su-30MKi fighter jets. While MiG-21s are already in the area, French-made Rafale fighters are expected to arrive soon.
In addition, the Indian Air Force has another technology that can repair damaged runways in a matter of hours. The combination of hardened shelters and the ability to quickly repair damaged runways gives India an operational advantage in combat with China.
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