Army Aviation Corps, a wing of the Indian Army, has come under severe criticism in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India submitted to the Parliament. This wing was created with the main objective of contributing to battlefield success by providing guidance to field commanders in applying decisive combat powers. Additionally, the audit body has also raised eyebrow on the Defence Ministry for gross neglect of equipping the Army Aviation Corps with sanctioned strength of helicopters, their maintenance and replacement. It is plagued with 32 per cent deficiency vis-a-vis its authorized fleet strength.
It is a demoralizing report and the Defence Ministry will have to explain its position in the Parliament for some of its grave shortcomings. We never expected such an alarming shortfall in the number of army helicopters particularly when these aircrafts are required to render service in a long border running into thousands of kilometers. With two of our immediate neighbours behaving in hostile manner, we cannot afford to be complacent in providing what is of utmost importance to our security.
The CAG has found a number of flaws in the functionality of the structural status of Army Aviation Corps. The first flaw is that 52 per cent of the fleet is more than 30 years old. The effective availability of helicopters for operations gets further reduced to 40 per cent of the authorization owing to low level of serviceability of the existing fleet. Of the 181 Cheetah/Chetak helicopters held by the Army, 51 were 40 years or older and 78 were between 30-40 years old.
The CAG observed that ever since these were approved for de-induction (2002), 23 helicopters had met with accidents. Army Aviation Corps could not replace its fleet of reconnaissance and observation helicopters (Cheetah/Chetak), which are due for de-induction since 10th Plan period (2002-2007) onwards.
21/12/15 Daily Excelsior
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It is a demoralizing report and the Defence Ministry will have to explain its position in the Parliament for some of its grave shortcomings. We never expected such an alarming shortfall in the number of army helicopters particularly when these aircrafts are required to render service in a long border running into thousands of kilometers. With two of our immediate neighbours behaving in hostile manner, we cannot afford to be complacent in providing what is of utmost importance to our security.
The CAG has found a number of flaws in the functionality of the structural status of Army Aviation Corps. The first flaw is that 52 per cent of the fleet is more than 30 years old. The effective availability of helicopters for operations gets further reduced to 40 per cent of the authorization owing to low level of serviceability of the existing fleet. Of the 181 Cheetah/Chetak helicopters held by the Army, 51 were 40 years or older and 78 were between 30-40 years old.
The CAG observed that ever since these were approved for de-induction (2002), 23 helicopters had met with accidents. Army Aviation Corps could not replace its fleet of reconnaissance and observation helicopters (Cheetah/Chetak), which are due for de-induction since 10th Plan period (2002-2007) onwards.
21/12/15 Daily Excelsior