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Cabinet committee’s nod for Dhruv makes HAL happy
Ravi Sharma
159 helicopters to be procured for Army and Air Force
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Procurement will cost over Rs. 14,000 crore
Delivery to armed forces expected in the next five years
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BANGALORE: The Cabinet Committee on Security’s (CCS) approval for procuring 159 Dhruv advanced light helicopters (ALH), at a cost of over Rs. 14,000 crore, for the Army and the Air Force has come as a relief to the manufacturer, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
A senior company official told The Hindu that “HAL was both pleased and relieved” with the clearance, which “fructified mainly due to the efforts of the Defence Ministry and HAL Chairman Ashok Baweja.”
Kept on hold for almost nine months in the face of strong criticism from the armed forces, which cited issues primarily relating to the poor serviceability of the 5.5-tonne helicopter, HAL, according to senior officials, initiated a number of steps to convince the CCS to give its nod for the purchase.
The consent has paved the way for signing formal contracts between the customers and HAL, with deliveries of the 159 machines expected to be spread over the next five years — through the XI Five Year Plan and the first year of the XII Plan. Of the 159 helicopters, 105 are for the Army and the rest for the Air Force.
Dhruv is a versatile machine that can perform admirably at both the sea level and at altitudes as high as 6 and 7 km.
Spares availability
HAL, which started deliveries of the Dhruv in January 2002, 10 years after the prototype’s first flight and about 20 years after the programme was initiated, has so far delivered around 60 helicopters to the Army, the IAF, the Navy and the Coast Guard, and a handful to other customers such as ONGC and the Jharkhand government.
But the copter has been plagued by maintainability problems and poor availability of spares. Two crashes, one during the run up to last February’s Aero India show in Bangalore, and the other, close to Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh in November 2005 when the Dhruv was being ferried to Jharkhand, did not help the helicopter’s cause.
Faced with criticism from the armed forces on failures in the Dhruv’s line replacement units (LRUs), HAL took several steps to improve the copter’s reliability, including the setting up a new maintenance and overhaul division in Bangalore. It also stopped production for a while to ensure that maintenance and the spares delivered were brought up to the users’ acceptations.
LRU failure rate
The Dhruv’s LRU failure rate, according to official sources, has been reduced from 16 per 100 hours of flying in 2002 to 6.1 per 100 hours in 2006, and to less than 5.5 for the entire fleet during the current year.
Senior company officials stressed that of the Dhruv’s 340 LRUs, 170 had not failed at all.
The Army Aviation has two squadrons of the ALH, one at Nasik and the other at the recently established base at Manasbal, close to Srinagar. Another unit is being raised.
The Air Force also has two ALH squadrons: one at Yelhanka (near Bangalore) and the other at Sarsawa (near Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh).
The Hindu : National : Cabinet committee’s nod for Dhruv makes HAL happy .
Absolutly good to see, our armed forces are focusing on locally developed products by shelving deal for those costlier 197 Eurocopter deal.
Ravi Sharma
159 helicopters to be procured for Army and Air Force
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Procurement will cost over Rs. 14,000 crore
Delivery to armed forces expected in the next five years
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BANGALORE: The Cabinet Committee on Security’s (CCS) approval for procuring 159 Dhruv advanced light helicopters (ALH), at a cost of over Rs. 14,000 crore, for the Army and the Air Force has come as a relief to the manufacturer, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
A senior company official told The Hindu that “HAL was both pleased and relieved” with the clearance, which “fructified mainly due to the efforts of the Defence Ministry and HAL Chairman Ashok Baweja.”
Kept on hold for almost nine months in the face of strong criticism from the armed forces, which cited issues primarily relating to the poor serviceability of the 5.5-tonne helicopter, HAL, according to senior officials, initiated a number of steps to convince the CCS to give its nod for the purchase.
The consent has paved the way for signing formal contracts between the customers and HAL, with deliveries of the 159 machines expected to be spread over the next five years — through the XI Five Year Plan and the first year of the XII Plan. Of the 159 helicopters, 105 are for the Army and the rest for the Air Force.
Dhruv is a versatile machine that can perform admirably at both the sea level and at altitudes as high as 6 and 7 km.
Spares availability
HAL, which started deliveries of the Dhruv in January 2002, 10 years after the prototype’s first flight and about 20 years after the programme was initiated, has so far delivered around 60 helicopters to the Army, the IAF, the Navy and the Coast Guard, and a handful to other customers such as ONGC and the Jharkhand government.
But the copter has been plagued by maintainability problems and poor availability of spares. Two crashes, one during the run up to last February’s Aero India show in Bangalore, and the other, close to Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh in November 2005 when the Dhruv was being ferried to Jharkhand, did not help the helicopter’s cause.
Faced with criticism from the armed forces on failures in the Dhruv’s line replacement units (LRUs), HAL took several steps to improve the copter’s reliability, including the setting up a new maintenance and overhaul division in Bangalore. It also stopped production for a while to ensure that maintenance and the spares delivered were brought up to the users’ acceptations.
LRU failure rate
The Dhruv’s LRU failure rate, according to official sources, has been reduced from 16 per 100 hours of flying in 2002 to 6.1 per 100 hours in 2006, and to less than 5.5 for the entire fleet during the current year.
Senior company officials stressed that of the Dhruv’s 340 LRUs, 170 had not failed at all.
The Army Aviation has two squadrons of the ALH, one at Nasik and the other at the recently established base at Manasbal, close to Srinagar. Another unit is being raised.
The Air Force also has two ALH squadrons: one at Yelhanka (near Bangalore) and the other at Sarsawa (near Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh).
The Hindu : National : Cabinet committee’s nod for Dhruv makes HAL happy .
Absolutly good to see, our armed forces are focusing on locally developed products by shelving deal for those costlier 197 Eurocopter deal.
