Ending a decade of friction between the Army and the Air Force (IAF), the ministry of defence (MoD) has finally made a decision: the Army will hereafter operate the fleet of attack helicopters that provides crucial fire support to troops in battle.
“We have received a letter from the ministry and have been given the attack helicopters by the government,” the Army chief, General Bikram Singh, said on Friday.
In a letter issued yesterday, the MoD had ruled the military’s entire attack helicopter fleet would be owned, operated and maintained by the Army. This includes the 22 Apache AH-64D helicopters being procured from US company Boeing Defence, Space and Security (BDS); as also a new-generation fleet of combat helicopters that Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is developing. That will include 179 light combat helicopters (LCHs) and 76 Rudras, a weaponised version of HAL’s Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH).
The IAF’s existing fleet of rapidly fading Russian Mi-25/35s, for long the world’s most heavily armed attack helicopter, will continue to be operated by the air force until they are retired from service.
13/10/12 Business Standard
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“We have received a letter from the ministry and have been given the attack helicopters by the government,” the Army chief, General Bikram Singh, said on Friday.
In a letter issued yesterday, the MoD had ruled the military’s entire attack helicopter fleet would be owned, operated and maintained by the Army. This includes the 22 Apache AH-64D helicopters being procured from US company Boeing Defence, Space and Security (BDS); as also a new-generation fleet of combat helicopters that Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is developing. That will include 179 light combat helicopters (LCHs) and 76 Rudras, a weaponised version of HAL’s Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH).
The IAF’s existing fleet of rapidly fading Russian Mi-25/35s, for long the world’s most heavily armed attack helicopter, will continue to be operated by the air force until they are retired from service.
13/10/12 Business Standard
