Mujraparty
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Heightened operational tempo as well increased area of responsibility for India's Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) necessitates the induction of more integral aviation assets for roles ranging from surveillance to casualty evacuation (CASEVAC). The inadequacy of road infrastructure in forested and mountainous regions puts a premium on rapid movement that can be mitigated only through airlift in the medium term. Moreover area domination patrols conducted by CAPFs in such theatres can benefit immensely with scouts in the air equipped with new generation sensors. As such, most CAPF's under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) are looking to take advantage of larger homeland security (HS) budgets than in the past to bring in integral aviation assets whenever they can. Some state police departments are also looking to follow suit for surveillance and quick response roles.
Late last year the Border Security Force (BSF) sought an unspecified number of additional helicopters from the MHA in aid of its new role of guarding the 1643 km long border with Myanmar - a role it is taking over from the Assam Rifles. The border with Myanmar is characterized in the main by forested mountains and the BSF will be setting up a number of 'air-maintained border outposts' in addition to ones already present on the ground. These air-maintained outposts are likely to prove crucial to the effective operation of some 50000 personnel, the BSF is planning to deploy on this border where road connectivity is virtually non-existent at many spots.
These additional helicopters are likely to be Mi-17Vs, eight of which are already on order for the BSF with the first two from that batch expected to be delivered by September this year. The Mi-17V is a step up from the Mi-17IV, eleven of which are currently part of the BSF's air wing (although some are actually owned by the Indian Air force) in that it possesses a new KNEI-8 navigation system, multifunctional displays, next generation night vision goggles (NVGs), helmet mounted cueing system and a state-of-the art autopilot, all of which are expected to enable smoother day/night operations. The Mi-17V's avionics suite also includes a 'weather radar' that proved extremely useful in the recent rescue operations conducted by the IAF in Uttarakhand last year. Incidentally the first two Mi-17Vs will be pressed into action in areas affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE) for general duties, CASEVAC and Search and Rescue (SAR) roles.
However owing to their size, Mi-17s sometimes cannot enter hot zones during times of inclement weather. For instance during an encounter in 2012 between Central forces and Maoists in Jharkhand, a MI-17IV sent for CASEVAC had to turn back on account of unfavourable weather and a HAL Dhruv instead was deployed for the job. Indeed, the BSF air wing also consists of some eight HAL Dhruvs with proposals to add more being muted.
It is important to note that larger numbers in the BSF's helicopter fleet have also become possible on account of an agreement it signed with the IAF a few years ago which has allowed the former to get pilots from the latter on deputation leading to vastly improved mission capable rates. In the mid-2000s the BSF was actually finding it difficult to put even 10 percent of its fleet in the air on account of an acute shortage of pilots.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) till now dependent on the BSF and IAF for air support is keen to get its own dedicated air wing and is probably going to induct a couple of hired HAL Dhruvs to begin with. The HAL Dhruv owing to past experiences such as the issues mentioned above has been deemed more suitable for the CRPF. Moreover, the HAL Dhruv is clearly better suited for quick response insertions in LWE affected areas. The CRPF's future 'Dhruv park' as it were, may end up resembling the Indian Army's (IA's ) 'Soaring Gideons' unit which operates HAL Dhruvs in support of special operations against terrorists in the valley. In the CRPF's case such a unit will of course carry COBRA commandos.
Like in the case of the Soaring Gideons, intelligence for operations by a future CRPF aviation unit could come from the latter's own unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) wing. Tired of tasking battles with the National Technical Reconnaissance Office (NTRO), the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has bitten the bullet on the Nishant UAV which is already in service with the IA and some 16 units of a customized version are set to find pride of place in its inventory. Given the terrain in which the CRPF variant will be operated, DRDO labs have worked together to reduce the number of support vehicles for it by a third. Importantly, the CRPF version will fly with an indigenously developed wankel rotary engine with a rating of 55 HP replacing its current ALVIS AR-801 engine. This engine developed by DRDO's Vehicle Research and Development Establishment is already under production at a private facility operated by SMC in Hyderabad with eight sets scheduled to be delivered soon. The MHA has also given the CRPF the go-ahead to acquire 10 Skylark Mini-UAVs from HAL in principle; however the final contract is pending on account of price negotiations.
The CRPF already operates the DRDO developed Netra quad-copter UAV produced by Mumbai based private firm Ideaforge. This portable vertical take-off UAV (VTUAV) weighs just 1.5 kgs and can fly up to a distance of 2.5 km from its take-off point with an operational altitude of 200 metres. Handling is via line of sight (LOS) up to a distance of 1.5 kms with an endurance of 30 minutes on a single battery charge. Equipped with a high resolution CCD camera, Netra can identify human activity up to 500 metres away while sending live video feed of objects within a radius of 5 km. It can also carry a thermal camera for night operations.
The Netra seems to have done quite well in the Indian market given that some state and police forces have already procured it besides CAPFs, with many more police units evincing interest. In fact the domestic market for small VTUAVs is believed to be quite large given typical crowd management requirements in Indian conditions. Nevertheless future growth of this segment will require VTUAVs mounted with cameras of better resolution and zoom capability and perhaps even more importantly - greater endurance.
The BSF too incidentally (along with the ITBP) operates the Netra in LWE affected areas. However the BSF like the CRPF is also keen to bring in larger fixed wing UAVs to monitor the Western sector with Pakistan. These new UAVs could either be in the class of the Nishant or perhaps even the larger IAI Herons operated by the IAF. In either case the BSF will have to work closely with the IAF for these inductions keeping airspace restrictions in mind. It is of course not clear as to where these UAVs might be based. Repair and overhaul could however well be carried out at New Delhi where the BSF bases all its fixed wing aircraft including Embraer-135 Js, Avros (HS-748) and some Super King B-200 aircraft.
Incidentally, the BSF's move to add two new fixed wing medium transport aircraft (MTA) came unstuck a couple of years ago when it was revealed that signatures on technical documents related to the 300 million dollar tender may have been forged. The forged documents apparently 'downscaled training and safety equipment and maintenance contracts'. The alleged rigging in the contract led to the entire process being re-tendered. The now cancelled contract had been won by the EADS CASA C-295W which beat out Alenia's C-27J Spartan.
While the precise status of this tender is unclear, it is understood that the BSF will require multiple MTAs in the future given its need to greatly augment troop transport and logistic capability. Added to this will be the requirements of other CPMFs, especially the CRPF and ITBP in the years to come. India's security management architecture seems to have a need to procure MTAs that can fly hot and high and in all weather conditions. It is in this context that the IAF's Avro replacement programme must be seen. The HS-748 replacement programme will not end up being for just 56 units, but probably four times that number given that the CPMF's as well as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are very likely customers. It is time that the Indian government cogently assessed the size of the domestic market and made decisions in a manner that leveraged India's scale requirements effectively.
Saurav Jha's Blog : Aviation assets for India's paramilitary forces
Late last year the Border Security Force (BSF) sought an unspecified number of additional helicopters from the MHA in aid of its new role of guarding the 1643 km long border with Myanmar - a role it is taking over from the Assam Rifles. The border with Myanmar is characterized in the main by forested mountains and the BSF will be setting up a number of 'air-maintained border outposts' in addition to ones already present on the ground. These air-maintained outposts are likely to prove crucial to the effective operation of some 50000 personnel, the BSF is planning to deploy on this border where road connectivity is virtually non-existent at many spots.
These additional helicopters are likely to be Mi-17Vs, eight of which are already on order for the BSF with the first two from that batch expected to be delivered by September this year. The Mi-17V is a step up from the Mi-17IV, eleven of which are currently part of the BSF's air wing (although some are actually owned by the Indian Air force) in that it possesses a new KNEI-8 navigation system, multifunctional displays, next generation night vision goggles (NVGs), helmet mounted cueing system and a state-of-the art autopilot, all of which are expected to enable smoother day/night operations. The Mi-17V's avionics suite also includes a 'weather radar' that proved extremely useful in the recent rescue operations conducted by the IAF in Uttarakhand last year. Incidentally the first two Mi-17Vs will be pressed into action in areas affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE) for general duties, CASEVAC and Search and Rescue (SAR) roles.
However owing to their size, Mi-17s sometimes cannot enter hot zones during times of inclement weather. For instance during an encounter in 2012 between Central forces and Maoists in Jharkhand, a MI-17IV sent for CASEVAC had to turn back on account of unfavourable weather and a HAL Dhruv instead was deployed for the job. Indeed, the BSF air wing also consists of some eight HAL Dhruvs with proposals to add more being muted.
It is important to note that larger numbers in the BSF's helicopter fleet have also become possible on account of an agreement it signed with the IAF a few years ago which has allowed the former to get pilots from the latter on deputation leading to vastly improved mission capable rates. In the mid-2000s the BSF was actually finding it difficult to put even 10 percent of its fleet in the air on account of an acute shortage of pilots.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) till now dependent on the BSF and IAF for air support is keen to get its own dedicated air wing and is probably going to induct a couple of hired HAL Dhruvs to begin with. The HAL Dhruv owing to past experiences such as the issues mentioned above has been deemed more suitable for the CRPF. Moreover, the HAL Dhruv is clearly better suited for quick response insertions in LWE affected areas. The CRPF's future 'Dhruv park' as it were, may end up resembling the Indian Army's (IA's ) 'Soaring Gideons' unit which operates HAL Dhruvs in support of special operations against terrorists in the valley. In the CRPF's case such a unit will of course carry COBRA commandos.
Like in the case of the Soaring Gideons, intelligence for operations by a future CRPF aviation unit could come from the latter's own unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) wing. Tired of tasking battles with the National Technical Reconnaissance Office (NTRO), the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has bitten the bullet on the Nishant UAV which is already in service with the IA and some 16 units of a customized version are set to find pride of place in its inventory. Given the terrain in which the CRPF variant will be operated, DRDO labs have worked together to reduce the number of support vehicles for it by a third. Importantly, the CRPF version will fly with an indigenously developed wankel rotary engine with a rating of 55 HP replacing its current ALVIS AR-801 engine. This engine developed by DRDO's Vehicle Research and Development Establishment is already under production at a private facility operated by SMC in Hyderabad with eight sets scheduled to be delivered soon. The MHA has also given the CRPF the go-ahead to acquire 10 Skylark Mini-UAVs from HAL in principle; however the final contract is pending on account of price negotiations.
The CRPF already operates the DRDO developed Netra quad-copter UAV produced by Mumbai based private firm Ideaforge. This portable vertical take-off UAV (VTUAV) weighs just 1.5 kgs and can fly up to a distance of 2.5 km from its take-off point with an operational altitude of 200 metres. Handling is via line of sight (LOS) up to a distance of 1.5 kms with an endurance of 30 minutes on a single battery charge. Equipped with a high resolution CCD camera, Netra can identify human activity up to 500 metres away while sending live video feed of objects within a radius of 5 km. It can also carry a thermal camera for night operations.
The Netra seems to have done quite well in the Indian market given that some state and police forces have already procured it besides CAPFs, with many more police units evincing interest. In fact the domestic market for small VTUAVs is believed to be quite large given typical crowd management requirements in Indian conditions. Nevertheless future growth of this segment will require VTUAVs mounted with cameras of better resolution and zoom capability and perhaps even more importantly - greater endurance.
The BSF too incidentally (along with the ITBP) operates the Netra in LWE affected areas. However the BSF like the CRPF is also keen to bring in larger fixed wing UAVs to monitor the Western sector with Pakistan. These new UAVs could either be in the class of the Nishant or perhaps even the larger IAI Herons operated by the IAF. In either case the BSF will have to work closely with the IAF for these inductions keeping airspace restrictions in mind. It is of course not clear as to where these UAVs might be based. Repair and overhaul could however well be carried out at New Delhi where the BSF bases all its fixed wing aircraft including Embraer-135 Js, Avros (HS-748) and some Super King B-200 aircraft.
Incidentally, the BSF's move to add two new fixed wing medium transport aircraft (MTA) came unstuck a couple of years ago when it was revealed that signatures on technical documents related to the 300 million dollar tender may have been forged. The forged documents apparently 'downscaled training and safety equipment and maintenance contracts'. The alleged rigging in the contract led to the entire process being re-tendered. The now cancelled contract had been won by the EADS CASA C-295W which beat out Alenia's C-27J Spartan.
While the precise status of this tender is unclear, it is understood that the BSF will require multiple MTAs in the future given its need to greatly augment troop transport and logistic capability. Added to this will be the requirements of other CPMFs, especially the CRPF and ITBP in the years to come. India's security management architecture seems to have a need to procure MTAs that can fly hot and high and in all weather conditions. It is in this context that the IAF's Avro replacement programme must be seen. The HS-748 replacement programme will not end up being for just 56 units, but probably four times that number given that the CPMF's as well as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are very likely customers. It is time that the Indian government cogently assessed the size of the domestic market and made decisions in a manner that leveraged India's scale requirements effectively.
Saurav Jha's Blog : Aviation assets for India's paramilitary forces
