RECENTLY, VARIOUS newspapers were abuzz with the news coming out from the defence establishment of the country, which stated that the defence ministry is on course to inking a multimillion dollar deal. The deal is to acquire 12 EH/AW-101 helicopters, manufactured by Italian aviation major Agusta Westland. According to defence ministry sources the deal is now in its concluding stages as the Cabinet Committee on Security is all set to give its stamp of approval to the deal. This will be the third major deal in recent years to ensure Indian politicians and other VVIPs are able to travel in a fully secure environment in and around the nation. First, the Rs727-crore deal for five mid-size Embraer 135BJ Legacy jets was inked in September 2003 during the NDA regime. Then, the Rs937-crore agreement for three Boeing Business Jets (BBJs), with advanced self-protection suites to safeguard against missiles and other threats, was signed in October 2005. With the Legacy jets and BBJs already inducted, the VVIPs will also get the 12 helicopters to travel around in style.
The EH-101 helicopters will have self-protection systems like missile-approach warners, chaff and flare dispensers and directed infra-red electronic counter-measures to protect the VVIPs on board. The new helicopters will replace the ageing Russian-origin Mi-8s and Mi-17s being operated by IAF's elite Communication Squadron, which ferries around the President and the Prime Minister. The AW-101, will ferry 10 passengers in its VVIP configuration tailor-made for Indian netas. The helicopter has three engines for better power and safety, and were found suitable by the Indian Air Force and the Special Protection Group. Moreover, the AW-101 was found to be a rugged crashworthy helicopter with damage-tolerant features, capable of hovering even in wind speeds over 80 kmph. This incidentally, comes at a time when the IAF is finally all set to commence the trials for its quest to acquire 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft starting at Bangalore next week. The entire process of testing the wares of six competitors is expected to last till April 2010. Each of the six vendors who are competing for the US$10.2 billion (approximately Rs48,000 crore) deal will be bringing in their fighter jets to India that would be tested in home conditions across three climate zones- hot, humid and cold.
The IAF team of test pilots at Bangalore, Leh in Jammu and Kashmir and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan will examine the diverse participants. Besides being a cold-weather terrain, Leh is a high-altitude location while Jaisalmer is a desert area with hot winds. The competitors include the Swedish Gripen, Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Super Viper, Eurofighter Typhoon, Russian United Aircraft Corporation’s MiG 35 and the French Dassault Aviation’s Rafale would also be provided an opportunity in the trials. The IAF has formed two teams of two test pilots who would assess the flying machine against the precise requirements of the IAF at each of these three locations. Planning for the trial schedule began some time back with the Indian test pilots being trained at the vendor’s country of origin. The second phase begins with the flight trials in Indian airspace and in the third and final phase, the aircraft would be run through a number of tests to check the efficacy of its weapons the manufacturers would have mounted on the aircraft at home country.
The IAF officials however said that the possibility of the trials overlapping cannot be ruled out since the IAF hopes to complete the exercise latest by March/April 2010. Once the trials are complete and the aircraft is identified, commercial negotiations will be instigated. India plans to acquire 18 of these in ready-to-fly conditions with the rest being manufactured in India under transfer of technology. However, both these deals, that is the deal to procure 12 high-end helicopters for Indian VVIPs and the other deal to acquire 126 fighter jets for the IAF have an altogether different facet to it. While on the one hand, all the deals related to the security of the lawmakers of the country have been fast-tracked and have been inked in the past six years, the IAF has been criticised for its lacklustre approach towards acquiring the 126 MMRCA which could enhance the air might of the country. But the IAF is not to be blamed in this regard; rather it is the government who has thwarted all the efforts made by the IAF to obtain the jets as early as possible.
Although the process of securing 126 war planes was initiated by the Indian Air Force in the year 2002, due to the careless attitude of our politicians to national security, the project was delayed for years and now the first tenders will be floated for the production of the first of the jets only in 2010. The procurement of these fighter planes is crucial for the IAF, because the force is in serious need to expand its fleet of squadrons from the current 30 to a more admirable 42. Moreover, the IAF wants to replace its aging Mirage and MIG fleets, so that the air superiority of India is maintained over its old time foe Pakistan and the threat of a Chinese invasion can be kept in check. Pakistan at present has F-16s at its disposal. Even though such a scenario has been continual, over the past few years, our politicians have not realised that the security of the country should be given the utmost priority, and that the modernisation process of our Armed Forces has to be put on the fast lane, rather they remaining inclined towards safeguarding themselves from the not-so-serious threats of terrorists. One needs to ask the netas how many leaders have died due to lack of security since Independence and compare that to the number of IAF pilots killed in crashes is unquestionable.
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