FLYING START
In a move likely to delight the Trump administration, India’s Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) is shortly to approve a governmenttogovernment deal for procuring 24 MH70R multirole helicopters worth over $2 billion from the US. The Indian navy is short of 61 MRH which its warships can use for surveillance missions, attack enemy warships and hunt enemy submarines. The last helicopters were acquired over 30 years ago, between 1986 and 1989. Earlier, in April, India approved the acquisition of 13 127 mm naval guns worth an estimated Rs 3,000 crore from the US through this route; an unspecified number of USmade Harpoon antiship missiles are also in the pipeline.
Naval analysts, however, believe the smaller number of helicopters will mean complex maintenance issues. “It will enhance our dependence on the original equipment manufacturers for spare parts because setting up incountry facilities for smaller numbers will not be costeffective,” says Rear Admiral Sudhir Pillai, former Flag Officer Naval Aviation.
The economies of scale will come with orders for the 123 Naval Multirole Helicopters (NMRH) and 111 Naval Utility Helicopters (NUH). These helicopters, meant to replace the navy’s ageing fleet of singleengined Chetak and twinengined Seaking helicopters are being processed through the MoD’s Strategic Partnership Model. In this model, a foreign OEM sets up production facilities to jointly make the hardware within the country thereby boosting indigenous defence industry. But with the SP model yet to take off and a defence budget squeeze under way, offtheshelf purchases appear to be most attractive in the short run.
Naval analysts say the smaller number of helicopters means more maintenance issues