Posted on 10/25/2011 5:40:30 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Report: India to buy attack helicopters from Boeing, not Russia
Oct 25, 2011, 12:14 GMT
Moscow - India is expected to purchase new attack helicopters from US aerospace giant Boeing rather than Russia, the Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a person familiar with the arms acquisition project.
Indian Defence Ministry officials in New Delhi refused to either confirm or deny the report, saying the deal would need more time to be finalized.
India decided to buy AH-64D Apache helicopters instead of Russian Mi-28 Havoc helicopters as part of a planned 2.5-billion-dollar programme to upgrade India's military helicopter fleet, the Interfax report said.
India's military will acquire at least 22 of the American attack helicopters, and an order increase to 44 aircraft is possible, the report added.
Boeing India officials said they could not comment on the report as they had not received any official confirmation of the deal from India's Defence Ministry.
India gave Boeing the nod over Russia's Mikoyan because of the American aircraft was more versatile, the report said, citing an unnamed Indian military official who was present at competitive testing between the Apache and the Havoc in 2010.
'Both aircraft performed exceptionally well, but the American aircraft showed an advantage in key characteristics l
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The Apache... are those Hellfire missiles?
the Apache is a bad ass weapons platform.
Maybe they will get to use them against the Tolly-bon
Why not? we do.
The MMRCA decision is on 4 Nov. Any bets which way the ball will spin? :)
If the Russians had any sense, they would have seen this coming. The Mi-28 is nowhere near the Apache as far as sophistication goes and is even farther away on the issue of customer support. It’s almost a replay of the Mig-35 offer.
I really don’t know where the MMRCA is headed-credit to the MOD for keeping it under wraps compared to similar competitions in Brazil or South Korea earlier. On a purely hedonistic level, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Rafale takes the cake!! though I wouldn’t mind being proved wrong.
The variant being offered to India is supposedly the Block-III with better networking capabilities. Of course, it will be subject to restrictions but it’d still be better than anything the Russians or anyone else can give.
Good choice. I think the Mi-28N is an effective assault platform, however it is simply not at AH-64D level. The Apache was the best choice on several levels (ranging for pure ability comparatives all the way to political considerations), and it’s sensory suite and weapons range will not make Pakistani/Chinese tanks have an easy time. Good choice for India which not only gives it a superlative weapon but also forges stronger ties with the US. It also makes Boeing not feel too bad about the F/A-18 MMRCA loss. :) Good choice India
India decided to buy AH-64D Apache helicopters instead of Russian Mi-28 Havoc helicopters as part of a planned 2.5-billion-dollar programme to upgrade India's military helicopter fleet, the Interfax report said. India's military will acquire at least 22 of the American attack helicopters, and an order increase to 44 aircraft is possible, the report added.
to an untrained eye like mine the Russian helicopter’s statistics look better. Why didn’t they choose that? is it the reliability of the Apache? Or that the Apache has been proven in battle?
Well those figures are from a Russian website!! Anyway, the Apache has been in service for longer and has a lot more upgrades as far as sensors and networking capabilities goes. The Mi-28 is at about the start of its career (though it’s been around for a long time) and has had little enthusiastic domestic or international support.
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