The Indian Army is looking to hire helicopters from civil agencies to carry out a range of jobs along the country’s northern borders such as logistics supplies, carrying troops to forward locations and casualty evacuation when needed, The Indian Express has learnt.
It plans to deploy these single-engine helicopters in specific sectors in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, such as Drass, Kargil, Batalik, Doda, Kishtwar and Gurez. Barring the specific sectors, the helicopters will be mostly deployed during the winters — from November to April — for stocking of ration, fuel, other stores and operational purposes.
Bids have been invited from potential service providers for details of helicopters available for the purpose, including their rate per flying hour and additional flying hours.
According to officials, this is a rare instance when the Army will hire helicopters for winter stocking, carrying out logistics work and supplies and other operational purposes.
There are plans for the Armed Forces to increasingly move towards outsourcing of major platforms and equipment instead of buying them — these need massive capital expenditure — and the Army’s move to hire the helicopters reflects that.
It is learnt that the helicopters will be used to fill in for the ageing Chetak and Cheetah fleet with the Army, which continue to face serviceability issues due to their long, extended years of service and the fact that many of them will begin completing their total technical life in the next three years. The Army plans to eventually replace them with the indigenous light utility helicopters.
“Apart from serviceability issues of the Cheetah fleet, big helicopters cannot land in several high-altitude forward locations due to lack of large helipads, and these smaller choppers will be able to perform a variety of roles, particularly in the transportation of all things for sustenance in the forward locations,” an official said.
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The hiring will also offer larger maintenance time for the Army’s helicopters which will continue to be used for operational duties. The IAF also pitches in with its bigger helicopters like Chinooks and smaller helicopters to carry out a range of operational duties for the Army in forward locations.
An official said this move is another initiative which will ease stocking and assist in quick de-induction of soldiers from high altitude areas. It will also help soldiers going on emergency leave to come down from the higher reaches.
“The strain on service aircraft and pilots will be reduced, permitting them to focus on operational tasks and winter air surveillance sorties. It will also ease the maintenance schedules of the Army helicopters as their flying hours will comparatively go down,” the official said.
The hiring of helicopters will be done under the Delegation of Financial Powers to Defence Services (DFPDS-2021) which was unveiled by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
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Ageing fleet of choppers
The Army operates the Chetak, Cheetah and variants of the indigenous ALH. It has around 190 Cheetah, Chetak and Cheetal choppers, of which around 25 are under maintenance at any point. These choppers are key for supplies and evacuations, but a majority is over 30 years old.
The DFPDS is the only document which lays out the financial powers of the three services for defence revenue procurements. All defence capital procurements are governed by the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020.
Other than increasing the number of Armed Forces officers who can take financial calls on major revenue procurements, the revised DFPDS-21 also had a provision to hire aircraft, mid-air refuellers and associated equipment for a short time for operational emergencies. Earlier, the IAF was also considering hiring mid-air refuellers under this DFPDS provision.
According to officials, the service provider or the civil agency selected will need to provide fully functional helicopters along with pilots and crew members and maintenance personnel, who have to be competent for high altitude flying operations.
The service provider will also provide the maximum number of helicopters at each location, transport cargo load or troops and carry out casualty evacuation on requirement basis.