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GUEST COLUMN |
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Saviour Wings |
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Military helicopters will play a vastly enhanced role in any future
conflict |
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By Lt Gen. B.S. Pawar (retd) |
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Military helicopters are helicopters specifically built or converted for use by
military forces.
The most common use of military helicopters is transportation of troops/stores
as utility or cargo helicopters. However, these can also be modified or
converted to perform other tasks such as combat search and rescue (CSAR),
medical evacuation, airbome command post or even armed with weapons for
attacking ground targets. Specialised military helicopters are required for
conduct of specific tasks/missions, like the attack helicopters, surveillance
and observation helicopters and anti submarine warfare helicopters.
Military helicopters play an integral part in the land, sea and air operations
of modern armies and hence the requirement of these helicopters by the army,
navy and air force. The ever increasing demand for use of military helicopters
in counter insurgency operations and Naxal-affected areas also makes a case for
their requirement with the security forces. Hence, there is a requirement of
holding different class of helicopters ranging from surveillance and observation
to heavy lift and specialised roles like attack helicopters and anti submarine
warfare operation as per the operational requirement of
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the Indian armed forces. The operational diversities of the Indian armed forces
coupled with variety of terrain (from sea level to Siachen) underline the need
for state-of-art, modern technology helicopters capable of operating both by day
and night in a complex battlefield environment of future.
Presently the Indian military holds in its kitty almost all class of helicopters
including some specialised ones but they are mostly vintage and few in numbers,
far from the quantity required. The light observation helicopters (Chetak and
Cheetah) held with the army, navy and air force have outlived their utility and
need immediate replacement. In the light utility category, the Hindustan
Aeronautics Limited (HAL), manufactured Advanced light Helicopter (ALH) has
already entered service with the army, air force and Coast Guard. The navy has
not found them suitable for operations from the ship. The ALH is an all weather,
night capable twin engine machine with state of art avionics and glass cockpit.
The ALH has recently been test evaluated for high altitude operations with the
fitment of a more powerful engine ‘Shakti’ being produced jointly by HAL with
the French Turbomeca. In the medium lift category the air force holds the, MI 8
and the MI 17 Russian helicopters. While the MI 8 requires immediate
replacement, the MI 17 needs some refurbishing and additional inductions. In the
heavy lift category there is nothing worthwhile, barring a few Russian MI 26
helicopters whose high altitude capability is poor. The weakest Link is in the
holding of specialised helicopters, especially the attack helicopters. The MI
25/MI 35 held are vintage and require replacement on priority. Even the Seaking
anti submarine warfare helicopters (ASW) held with the navy need
upgrade/replacement with induction of state of art modern ASW helicopters. |
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MAY 2012
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