Guest Column | Lt Gen. B.S. Pawar (retd)
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Growing Needs
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The highs and lows of Indian military helicopters |
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By Lt Gen. B.S. Pawar (retd)
Military helicopters are specifically built or converted for use
by military forces. The most common use of military helicopters is
transportation of troops or stores. However, these can also be modified or
converted to perform other tasks such as combat search and rescue (CSAR),
medical evacuation and airborne command; or armed with weapons they can be used
for attacking ground targets. Specialised military helicopters are required for
conduct of specific missions, like |
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attack, surveillance and observation and anti submarine warfare (ASW).
Military helicopters play an integral part in the land, sea and air operations of modern militaries. The ever increasing demand for use of military helicopters in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorist operations also makes a case for their requirement with the security forces. Hence, there is a need for holding different class of helicopters ranging from surveillance and observation to heavy lift and specialised ones like attack and ASW. The operational diversities of the Indian armed forces coupled with the variation of terrain (from sea level to Siachen) underlines the need for state of art, modern technology helicopters capable of operating both by day and night in a complex battlefield environment of future.
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