Army wins battle for choppers

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has accepted the Indian Army’s demand for attack helicopters, even as the Indian Air Force (IAF) raised objections to such a move. According to highly-placed sources, the MoD approval for attack helicopters would come soon and the Army would get eight or nine squadrons for its Pivot Corps and Three Strike Corps based at Mathura, Ambala and Bhopal.

“The Army is keen to have attack choppers to provide tactical support to its troops during battle. The IAF can continue with its larger role to protect the country’s airspace,” sources told Express. Six or seven squadrons of attack choppers would be indigenous Light Combat Helicopters and they would be deployed along with the Mountain Strike Corps the Army proposes to raise.

The IAF has been opposing the Army demand for its own air assets. At the root of the bitter wrangling is the IAF’s contention that air assets being capital intensive are ‘scarce resources’ and that the Air Force should be their sole repository as it has the operational expertise for rapid deployment.

But the Army contended that the IAF does not fully understand its strategies and concepts like ‘close air support’. Also, the IAF maintained that the Joint Army Air Instruction of 1986 empowered the Army to operate only light utility helicopters weighing less than five tonnes, basically for communication, directing artillery fire and the like.

As per the agreement, the IAF was to operate heavier helicopters such as the attack choppers.

However, General Bikram Singh renewed the Army’s pitch to own aerial assets in his first review meeting with Defence Minister A K Antony earlier this month.

The demand to enhance air combat capability by procuring more Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and improving the airlift capability in the northeastern region received a positive response during the meeting, which reviewed the next two years of acquisition for the 1.13 million-strong Army.

The Army Aviation Corps   plans to have at least five fixed wings aircraft for each of its operational commands.