India faces dire fighter and helicopter deficit, with no solution in sight
An Achilles heel of India’s military has been exposed following recent crashes, with MiG-21 and Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) fleets grounded in May.
India is facing a severe crisis, as illustrated by the Indian Air Force (IAF) plummeting to 31 fighter squadrons compared to the required 42.
Nonetheless, the military will soon start flying the ALH for emergency operations. An MoD official told Shephard, ‘The process to check all variants of the ALH is a bit lengthy and [is occurring] in phases.’
He refused to divulge the number of ALHs in which steel rods had replaced aluminium control rods,
Already have an account? Log in
Want to keep reading this article?
Read this Article
Get access to this article with a Free Basic Account
- Original curated content, daily across air, land and naval domains
- 2 free store ies per week
- Daily news round-up email service
- Access to all Decisive Edge email newsletters
Unlimited Access
Access to all our premium news as a Premium News 365 Member. Corporate subscriptions available.
- Original curated content, daily across air, land and naval domains
- 14-day free trial (cancel at any time)
- Unlimited access to all published premium news
More from Air Warfare
-
Insight: How India’s Tri-Service MQ-9B $4 billion deal was awarded
After lengthy negotiations, the Indian Ministry of Defence has now signed a US$4 billion contract with the US Government to procure 31 MQ-9B drones from General Atomics, marking India as the largest customer of this UAV model.
-
WaveAerospace aims to launch production of new UAS platforms in 2025
WaveAerospace has been showcasing its MULE heavy-lift VTOL UAS, designed for contested logistics missions with a payload capacity of more than 40kg and up to four hours of endurance, while also introducing Huntress, a fast multirotor UAS. Both will be expected to enter production by 2025.
-
Teledyne FLIR Defense Wins $91 million deal for Black Hornet 4 UAS
The Black Hornet 4 was unveiled 12 months ago and has an improved thermal sensor and an EO camera over the previous platform, and a forward-facing ultrasound sensor and navigation cameras on the top and sides.