India has introduced the closure of airspace over an space across the Andaman and Nicobar Islands within the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea for 3 hours every on Might 23-24 for a deliberate air exercise, and no civilian plane can be allowed to make use of the required airspace at any altitude, in keeping with a latest Discover to Airmen (NOTAM) issued by the Indian authorities.
The NOTAM was issued on Friday (Might 16) night. It’s not necessary for the precise nature of the air exercise to be talked about within the NOTAM.
A overview of previous NOTAMs issued for navy workouts and weapons checks exhibits that the particular nature of the exercise was talked about in a lot of notices, whereas a number of have been non-specific. However the location and sure particulars of this NOTAM could also be interpreted as indicative of a missile or weapons system take a look at.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands area has been used again and again by India for missile checks, with the take a look at firing of the BrahMos supersonic missile in salvo mode in January 2025 being a latest instance. In April final yr, India efficiently examined an air-launched ballistic missile within the Adamans, and in March 2022, a profitable take a look at firing of the prolonged vary BrahMos missile was accomplished from a launch pad within the island group.
In accordance with the NOTAM, the required airspace—over a polygonal space across the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with most hall size of round 500 km—can be restricted between 01:30 and 04:30 UTC (7 am and 10 am IST) on Might 23 and 24, and consequently 9 worldwide flight routes can be closed for these intervals with none various routes being made accessible. The affected altitudes are listed as floor to limitless, which signifies that civilian plane should not allowed to function even at very excessive altitudes over the required space in the course of the restriction home windows.
Because the NOTAM is for a specified three-hour window on each days, covers a big space, is relevant for all altitude ranges from the bottom up, and doesn’t make accessible any various routes for civilian plane, it could possibly be indicative of a missile take a look at or a high-altitude weapons take a look at. Such broad closures with out various routes often sign delicate or hazardous operations that require civilian plane to be stored fully out of vary. For actions like aerial surveys, often decrease altitudes are used, which don’t intrude with high-altitude flight paths.
Emails to the Airports Authority of India, Ministry of Defence, Defence Analysis and Improvement Organisation (DRDO), and the Indian Area Analysis Organisation (ISRO) haven’t elicited any response to date.
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