Big Indian Light Helicopter Buys Are Delayed Again
AIN DEFENSE PERSPECTIVE » DECEMBER 6, 2013 by NEELAM MATHEWS December 6, 2013, 11:50 AM India’s twice-bid reconnaissance and surveillance helicopter ( RSH ) competition has been delayed again. An oversight committee is now scrutinizing the latest bids to inquire into allegations of improper conduct by an army officer during flight trials of the finalists. The Kamov Ka-226T and Eurocopter AS550C 3 Fennec are competing for an Army and Air Force requirement for 197 helicopters. “The committee will further investigate the analysis…we would like this to happen [soon],” Lt. Gen Amarjeet Singh Chabbewal, Chief of Staff Western Command for the Indian Army, told AIN . The RSH helicopters are intended to replace an aging fleet of Chetak (Aerospatiale SA 316 Alouette III ) and Cheetah ( SA315B Alouette II ) helicopters. Spares are now expensive and increasingly difficult to obtain. “We have...