Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Feb 17: A big question mark raised over the Army’s ageing aviation fleet by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) included Rudra helicopters, which were quite often being used by the Northern Command for reconnaissance missions along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and sometimes during anti-militancy operations.
Official sources told the Excelsior that Rudra helicopters, which were being extensively used by the Army along the LoC for reconnaissance missions and other purposes along with Cheetah and Chetak have been described as the “ageing fleet” of Army, some of which were 30 to 40 years old, which were required to be replaced immediately to boost operations of the troops especially in the militancy infested States like Jammu and Kashmir.
“There is also a need for each Strike Corps to have a dedicated attack helicopter unit,” it has pointed out and said Army’s rotary wing fleet is set to grow two folds, i.e. up to 500-600 helicopters in near future. In addition it needs 200-plus helicopters to replace the existing Chetak/ Cheetah fleet.
Sometime back, Rudra helicopters were deployed in Northern Command to carry out reconnaissance of forward areas like Akhnoor, Sunderbani, Nowshera, Jhangar, Rajouri, Thana Mandi, Mendhar and Poonch along the LoC in Jammu and many parts of the Kashmir Valley to check infiltration attempts by the militants.
“There were plans to deploy Rudra helicopters for other forward areas of Jammu and Kashmir in future too. These helicopters were part of Central Command,” sources said.
Rudra is equipped with a mix of weapons providing it with the capability to search and destroy any target. It carries a 20 mm automatic cannon, which can fire at a speed of 750 rounds per minute with an effective range of 2000 meters.
The helicopter is equipped with Integrated Defensive Aids Suite (IDAS), radar warning receiver, IR jammer, flare and chaff chispenser. Pilots have a helmet – mounted sight and fixed facilitating firing of the onboard weapons, which helps the Army in locating militants even in the snow clad mountains or dense forest cover, which they crossed in many areas for infiltration into the Indian territory from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) or during the search operations carried out by the troops.
Noting that the Defence Ministry and Army Headquarters were seized of the issue of ageing Army fleet including Rudra helicopters used in anti-infiltration and anti-militancy operations along the LAC and for other purposes like reconnaissance missions, sources said the steps had been initiated for substitutes to ensure that the Army work didn’t suffer especially in the militancy-infested States like Jammu and Kashmir.
The CAG had also pointed out that 52 percent of Army Aviation helicopters were more than 30 years old and only 40 percent available for operations.
“The effective availability of helicopters for operations gets further reduced to 40 percent of the authorization due to low level of serviceability of the existing fleet. As against the desired 80 percent serviceability, the Chetak and Cheetah choppers have been operating at a mere 65 percent serviceability,” sources said, adding that despite these shortcomings, Army Aviation could not replace its fleet of Cheetah/Chetak helicopters being used for reconnaissance and observation in the anti-militancy and anti-infiltration operations.
The Aviation Corps currently operates 126 Cheetah, 55 Chetak and 65 indigenously built advanced light helicopter Dhruv for multi-purpose and utility roles.
Chetak and Cheetah helicopters are also used many a times by the Army for different kind of operations against the militants including airlifting of the troops to remote and far off areas.
“While the Cheetah and Chetak are ageing platforms, in deed of replacement, the low production rate of Dhruv’s, eight a year, by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is limiting their induction in large numbers. It is yet to induct the armed Dhruv variants two years after the unit has been raised,” sources said.
Sources added that Army Aviation must possess a mix of all categories of helicopters including attack helicopters for various role of attack, assault, combat support, special operations, etc.
US Army Aviation has been the pioneer in evolving the concept of employment of the rotary wing arm in support of ground operations. The concept of ‘Air Cavalry’ has now graduated to ‘Air Assault Brigades’ on the order of battle of regular Army Divisions. A full-fledged arm of the US Army, Army Aviation operates over 5000 helicopters of all Kinds.
In China, Peoples Liberation Army Aviation Corps (PLAAC) was restructured way back by transferring a majority of rotary wing assets of the PLA Air Force.
“Army Aviation being an integral part of the ground forces, its employment must be in consonance with the methodology of operations of the ground forces, sources pointed out and said the Army Aviation will need to meet the challenge of providing field forces commander a capability of apply decisive combat power at critical times anywhere in the battlefield.
“This would include insertion of troops and providing direct fire from helicopters. It must allow ground forces commanders to overcome terrain and battle field friction, mitigate the limitations of time and space and expand the battlefield,” they added.
Therefore, according to sources, the key elements towards capability development of Army Aviation include recce and surveillance, firepower and substantial lift assets in its inventory. These key elements would also enable Army Aviation to undertake counter-insurgency/ counter-terrorist tasks special operations, combat support tasks and provide aid during natural disasters.
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