TIME FOR CREDIBLE ROTARY-WING CAPABILITIES

With tactical-level challenges looming in India’s neighbourhood, it is time for the Indian armed forces to rapidly brush up on rotorcraft capabilities. A Special Report

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The Indian armed forces operate one of the largest helicopter fleets in South Asia and the Indian armed forces presently operate 38 Helicopter Units (HUs) which comprise Russian-built Mi-17, Mi-17 1V, Mi-17 V5 helicopters, which are the backbone of medium-lift combat capability of IAF in addition to HAL license-built Cheetah and Chetak helicopters and the Dhruv (ALH MK-I, ALH MK-III, ALH MK-IV), along with American-made AH-64E Apaches and Boeing CH-47F Chinooks as the other workhorses. The IAF is presently short of just one HU to meet its sanctioned strength of 39. Helicopters are generally more maintenance intensive and have a Total Technical Life (TTL), that ranges between 5,000 hours to 12,000 hours depending on their age and vintage.

The IAF due to budgetary constraints, ends up operating most of its platforms far beyond that envisaged by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). Case in point is the obsolescent Cheetah and Chetak helicopters, that continue to fly when they should have been retired by now. The IAF finally ended up retiring its MI-8 ‘Pratap’ helicopters in December 2017, after inducting 107 MI-8s between 1971 – 1988. The MI-8 was inducted in ten operational helicopter units and it operated in several major IAF operations including Operation Meghdoot in the Siachen Glacier and Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka.

Strength in numbers