Are there any Gulfstreams that every aircraft spotter would like to see or still needs? A certain Japanese GII maybe? Yes, but also the GIII's operated by the Indian Air Force. The three GIII's belong to the most secretive aircraft in the world. Not much is known about their active role and they are seldom seen outside India.
C/n 494 (N370GA) and 495 (N371GA) got the military
serials K-2981 and K-2982 (but no photo proof could be found on any of these serials really applied) and are reported to enter service late February 1994 (over 7 years after delivery!?). Some
sources report the deliberate swap of serials by the IAF between both aircraft, for confusion reasons. In 2006 the 495 suffered tail damage in a hangar roof collapse at Charbatia. In 2007 and
2009 both aircraft got an upgrade and were re-registered K-2961 and K-2962. K-2962 was noted again at Malta on 20 December 2009 and Lajes-Azores (21 December) with a new tail section and work
having been done on the fuselage. It arrived at Fort Myers (FL) on December 22. After almost half a year, undergoing maintenance/upgrades, K-2962 was seen at St. Johns on 19 June 2010 and Malta
21 June on it's return flight back to India from Fort Myers (FL).
A third GIII (c/n 420), in VIP/transport
configuration was delivered in May 1987 to the Indian AF as N47449 through Luton and got serial VT-ENR. The aircraft has reportedly been allocated an IAF serial also (K-2980) but this
was never worn. VT-ENR is the original SRA-1 demonstrator (N47449) and still has the cargo door on the right side of the fuselage. The aircraft was noted outside India on a ferry-flight through
Algiers - Lajes - Hallifax 02-04 December 2006 painted as VT-ENR. VT-ENR was seen as K-2960 at Delhi International airport in February 2017.
So, how about the current status of those classic and looked-after Gulfstream III's? In February 2017 both K-2960 and K-2961 were noted at Delhi-International Airport. Based on the report both looked in reasonable condition. K-2962 was not seen anywhere. In September 2022 K-2961 was noted at Tehran Mehrabad Airport, Iran with a new serial G-2961.