Three Army officers were killed when a Cheetah helicopter crashed at the Sukna military station in West Bengal on Wednesday morning. One jawan was critically injured.
The loss comes a day after the service lost seven personnel, including two officers, in a terror attack on an Army base at Nagrota in Kashmir.
The officers were identified as Lt. Col. Rajneesh Kumar and Majors Sanjeev Lathar and Arvind Bazala. The condition of Sapper Dhamne Yogesh Bhaskar was critical, the Army’s Eastern Command said in a statement. “The helicopter was about to land after a routine sortie when it crashed,” a spokesperson said.
A Court of Inquiry has been ordered by the Army to ascertain the cause.
Delayed replacement
Cheetah helicopters are of the 1980s vintage and they were due for de-induction since 10th Plan period (2002-2007) onwards.
According to a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) tabled in the Parliament in December 2015 for the period ended March 2014, the Army Aviation Corps (AAC) was operating 126 Cheetah, 55 Chetak and 65 indigenously built Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) for utility and multi-purpose roles.
While the Cheetah and Chetaks are ageing platforms in need of urgent replacement, the low production rate of Dhruv’s, eight per year, by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is limiting their induction in large numbers.
The CAG stated that the AAC is plagued with 32 per cent deficiency against its authorised fleet strength. “The helicopters held are old and ageing, with 52 per cent of the fleet more than 30 years old,” it noted.
In addition, the effective availability of the existing fleet for operations gets further reduced to 40 per cent of the authorisation due to low level of serviceability.
The CAG had concluded that “failure in meeting the targets and objectives of the acquisitions plans and tardiness in procurement action” were the main reasons denying the Army to acquire suitable replacement for the old and ageing fleet.
After several failed attempts to procure new utility helicopters through competitive bidding, India has signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement with Russia to build at least 200 Kamov-226T utility helicopter in India under technology transfer. The final commercial deal between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited the HAL of India and Rosoboronexport of Russia is pending.
(With additional inputs from Shiv Sahay Singh from Kolkata)
