Spares Unavailability Threatens India’s Aging Helo Fleet
AIN DEFENSE PERSPECTIVE » SEPTEMBER 14, 2012 by NEELAM MATHEWS The Alouette III was license-produced by HAL in India as the Chetak. September 14, 2012, 12:55 PM Maintaining India’s fleet of more than 230 aging Cheetah and Chetak reconnaissance and surveillance helicopters is turning into a nightmare due to unavailability of spares, according to K.C. Nanda, general manager of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd’s Barrackpore Division, who sounded the warning at a defense conference held in Kolkata in August. HAL built both the Cheetah and the Chetak under license from Eurocopter. The Cheetah is a version of the Eurocopter Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama, single-engine helicopter that combines the lighter Alouette II airframe with Alouette III components and powerplant. The Chetak is a license-built Alouette III . Production lines closed in France in the 1980s, and HAL ...