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Copter hunt gets hotter-Race between US & Russian choppers as army, IAF weigh options
The Telegraph, India ^ | August 15 , 2011 | SUJAN DUTTA

Posted on 08/15/2011 9:22:32 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki

Copter hunt gets hotter- Race between US & Russian choppers as army, IAF weigh options

SUJAN DUTTA

New Delhi, Aug. 14: The army and the air force are now totting up the scores in a competition between American and Russian helicopter gunships, one of which will replace the attack copters in the Indian armed forces.

The attack helicopter fleet, currently made up of ageing Soviet-origin Mi 25s and Mi 35s, is in the custody of the IAF but is meant to support land operations of the army.

The IAF will initially procure 22 attack copters — either the Boeing-made AH64 D Apache Longbow or the Mil Mi 28 (Havoc) — with the option of expanding the order to 40. The contract for the helicopters, minus the weapons and the ammunition, is expected to be upwards of $550 million.

The trials of the helicopters were held in Ladakh and Rajasthan and also in the US and Russia. Defence ministry sources said the IAF’s recommendation was being processed and a decision could be taken by the end of the month.

The twin-engine, twin-cockpit Mi 28 has a single under-nose gun and rocket pods attached to short wings. The Boeing AH64 D Apache is a four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopter that fires Hellfire missiles and has a tandem cockpit for two. Both the helicopters are heavily armoured for close combat.

Though the attack helicopter is at the combat edge of the armed forces, the bigger contract would be for 197 light-utility helicopters for both the army and the air force. The order may be expanded for 310 helicopters in this category.

This would make up the bulk of the Army Aviation Corps’ helicopter fleet — which in any case is larger than the air force’s. The Eurocopter AS 550 Fennec and the Russian Kamov Ka 226 helicopters are competing for the order. Trials for these, too, have been completed.

The helicopters in this category are meant for surveillance and observation but may also be armed for combat. They will replace the Cheetahs and Chetaks, which are of 1960s and 1970s vintage.

Defence minister A.K. Antony cancelled the competition in this category in 2008 after allegations that Eurocopter had not fielded the military version of the helicopter in the trials. At the time, Bell had also competed but it did not re-bid for the order.

The AS 550 Fennec is a single-engine machine that its makers claim has performed at such heights that it will have no problem in flying in the Siachen glacier. Its competitor, the Ka 226, is twin-engined with contra-rotating rotors (two pairs of rotors one above the other, one rotating clockwise and the other counter-clockwise) and the Russians claim this makes it safer and more stable.

The IAF is also expecting to sign a contract this year to acquire heavy-lift helicopters for which Boeing’s CH-47 Chinook and the Russian Mil Mi 26 T2 are competing. The Russian Mi 26’s claim to fame is that it can lift the Chinook. But an older version of the Mi 26 is in the IAF’s inventory — it has three of them — but a chronic shortage of spares has made it difficult to operate the machines.

Last week, suspected Taliban shot down a Chinook carrying US special forces, including 20 SEALs who were involved in the raid on Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden. The Chinook is used by the US forces extensively in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The IAF is looking to buy 15 heavy-lift helicopters chiefly to ferry the BAe Land Systems M777 ultra-light howitzers, which the army has nearly finalised with the US, to high-altitude posts on the frontier with China.

Army and air force officers complain that all these procurements are long overdue and decisions have been put off either because of single-vendor situations or on the suspicion of corruption. The moves to acquire the helicopters were first initiated about seven years ago.

The only major helicopter-procurement — apart from the Hindustan Aeronautics-made Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv — that the government has concluded has been for 12 Agusta Westland AW 101 machines for VVIP transport.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: aerospace; helicopters; iaf; russia

1 posted on 08/15/2011 9:22:39 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
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To: sukhoi-30mki

The Russian chopter will win, India hates the USA.


2 posted on 08/15/2011 9:46:04 AM PDT by jpsb
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To: sukhoi-30mki
Bet 1: The Apache wins

Bet 2: The Kamov wins

Bet 3: Chinook wins (unless the spare parts issue is resolved ....although that pic of the Mil hauling the Chinook is really pie in the face. I wonder how that picture came to be)

3 posted on 08/15/2011 9:47:03 AM PDT by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

Nice pix of the Longbow and the Russian Longbowski


4 posted on 08/15/2011 9:53:26 AM PDT by Bringbackthedraft (Liberals fight with smear, Conservatives fight with truth. Palin & West team are 2012's dream)
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To: jpsb
The Russian chopter will win, India hates the USA.

Yes, which is why India has purchased C-17s from Boeing (which may soon be the second largest user of the type after the US military, with the deal having a $5.8 billion annual economic impact and giving 25,000 Americans in 44 states jobs), selection of the C-130J (a Lockheed Martin product), and the F404-GE-F2J3 engine (a GE product) for its Tejas aircraft project ....that is just what the Indian airforce has done so far. So yes ...definitely India HATES the US. That is why it is sending billions of Dollars (actually Dollars ...not the aid given to Pakistan) to the US. With such hate who needs love!!!!

(extreme sarcasm off)

5 posted on 08/15/2011 9:56:32 AM PDT by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: spetznaz

We Haul It All
http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/milman.html?c=y&page=1

Jarnot, at the time the senior U.S. Army aviation liaison officer between the Third Brigade, 101st Airborne Division and the 10th Mountain Division, was charged with tidying up after Operation Anaconda, an attempt in early March to drive al Qaeda and Taliban fighters out of the Shahi-Kot Valley and surrounding mountains. It ended three weeks later with eight U.S. and several hundred enemy soldiers killed, and two damaged Special Forces Boeing MH-47E Chinook helicopters stranded on the slopes above Sirkhankel at 8,500 and 10,300 feet.

...

Though the helicopter at 10,300 feet turned out to be too badly damaged to salvage, there was an option for saving the other: Find a Russian heavy lifter known as the Mi-26. Rarely seen in the West, the Mi-26, according to Jane’s, is the “largest ever production helicopter.” Jarnot took the idea to his commanding officer. “If you got the cash, we can get on the Internet and try to outsource the job,” he told the commander, adding, “Jane’s showed the Mi-26 had enough oomph to get it off the mountain.”


6 posted on 08/15/2011 9:57:21 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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46 Days And FR Is Still Short Of Its Goal

We Are In A Fight For Our Republic

Are You In Or Are You Out?

Support Free Republic

7 posted on 08/15/2011 10:36:22 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
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To: thackney

Thanks for the info FRiend. Much appreciated.


8 posted on 08/15/2011 10:58:12 AM PDT by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: thackney

That thing is a monster.


9 posted on 08/15/2011 10:17:10 PM PDT by Husker24
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To: Husker24

Russian heavy lift aircraft are epic.
They’ve built a 100,000 people cities in the middle of nowhere using only aircraft to haul people and material and still have these cities getting most they need via airlift.


10 posted on 08/16/2011 6:43:02 AM PDT by cunning_fish
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