India says IL-76 made record Ladakh landing

The Indian Air Force said Saturday that an IL-76MD heavy-lift transport aircraft had landed at Nyoma in remote Ladakh, calling it the highest-altitude landing ever achieved by that aircraft anywhere in the world.

The airfield is 4,154 metres, or 13,629 feet, above sea level and lies close to India's frontier with China. The IAF described the landing as a milestone for India's strategic airlift capability.

Images posted by the IAF on social media showed the aircraft landing and taking off from a runway surrounded by barren mountains in the cold desert area, where temperatures can fall to minus 20C.

The military airfield at Nyoma was completed last year as part of India's push to improve military infrastructure in Ladakh after a 2020 border clash killed 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.

Relations between India and China have slowly improved since the clash, with renewed high-level political contacts. Both countries still keep military deployments along their roughly 3,500-kilometre high-altitude border along Tibet because of unresolved territorial disputes.

The IL-76MD is a four-engine, Russian-origin military transport aircraft that can carry heavy military equipment. Landing it at Nyoma could strengthen India's ability to move forces and equipment in high-altitude terrain.