When one passes in written exam of air nforce (X & Y group), He appears for one day medical and then waits for AISL merit. If you make it in merit, you will be sent to Airmen Training School, ATS Belagavi, Karnataka.
In India, main force for combat is Army and auxiliary forces are Navy and Air Force but nowadays you can’t do anything on the battlefield without airforce.
The training is known as JBPT (JOINT BASIC PHASE TRAINING). its duration is six months. In this six months, Every trainee has to pass the exams conducted by regional examination board (REB). Training has been divided into two phase.
(a) MTT (MIDTERM TEST)
(b) REB
If we talked about the degree of toughness in training, it is half of Army’s training. But duration matters in training. It consists of six months. There are two things for that a trainee is trained. (a) GSK (B) GST
GSK- GENERAL SERVICE KNOWLEDGE
GST- GENERAL SERVICE TRAINING
In GSK, a trainee will be taught the system of airforce (airmen’s lifestyle, Pay, and perks, airforce laws, service documents) all things related to airmen, not airforce officer.
In GST, a trainee will be taught parade, PT, yoga, drills, running and so on. Every day remains so tedious of airmen JBPT training.
If I talk about the routine of airmen training.
Airmen start their day at 0400 Hrs. That starts with daily routine and all necessary activities up to 0430 Hrs. Everyone gets in PT dress and reach health run ground at 0435Hrs, it lasts in 85 minutes after that pack up from health run at 0600 Hrs.
As per respective days, routine dress changes into parade/pt/endurance dress. Later it everyone joins breakfast between (0600Hrs to 0630Hrs) and after that reports to the respective ground for pt/endurance /parade. Pack up from there at 0850hrs and again change into faculty dress and report to the faculty at 0920 Hrs. Usual pack up from faculty takes place at 1230Hrs or 1300Hrs later it every trainee takes lunch and take rest for 40 to 50 min and get ready for evening activities PT /Parade/ Endurance and everyone has to reach 1545 Hrs you. After 15 minutes pack from there and they get ready for night class which is conducted at 1820 Hrs and lasts in one and a half hour. Approx 2000Hrs trainee reaches his barrack.
They take dinner and later it depends on duty instructor for night roll call up to 1Hrs. Sometimes it continues up to midnight. Finally, your study time is 2100 Hrs to 2230Hrs
Official time to go on the bed is 2230 Hrs but sometimes for fun and sometimes in pain, it gets shifted up to 0100hrs.
But by the passage of time, they get used to with that and feel ease at doing it. The next day begins with the same activities.
The degree of toughness is low as compared to army training. Every trainee has to pass in all exams of GSK, GST. Physical Training consists of running, yoga, rope climbing, sit-ups, chin-ups, push-ups and so on.
There are three major events in this training are;
(a) Cross Country 10km
(b) Drill Competition
(c) FCTC
The third event is one of the best and most important.
Field Craft Training Tamp
This is conducted in the jungle surrounded by civil buildings.
Purpose of this camp is how to fight if a war like situation occurs.
It continues for 7 days. The trainee has to stay in camp, war-like situation. The Trainee has to be 24 hours with the gun, whole day exercises like front roll, crawling and rolling.
The paucity of water for 7days
One gets very less water for shaving, early morning activities. In the duration of this camp, no one takes bath for seven days. Toughness increases and a trainee get less than 2 hours sleep in 24 hours. Where the third day of camp is survival day. A trainee will not get water to drink water from 5 am to 7 pm. That is the hardest day of that camp survival day. The main purpose is how to survive when a war like situation occurs and this makes a tough soldier.