Abingdonboy
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My personnel opinion....IA should operate 100 Ah-64. Some might think it is too much but we have world's biggest voluntary army and according to reports number is increasing as oppose to western countries.
I have written this many times earlier also, we need to acquire more and more heavy lift and medium lift helicopters for our army for rapid mobilization. Most part of troubled areas in India like J&K, North East and Naxal Infested areas have one thing in common, poor infrastructure. We cannot build airports, roads & railways everywhere but we can land helicopters in every troubled zone.
US army alone operate more than 4500 helicopters. Our army which is bigger than US should at-least operate 1000 choppers but we operate something around 213 helicopters at the moment and none of them are transport except dhruv which are around <45.
IAF is placing order for 12 heavy lift helicopters. I mean its a joke, this number is so small that it will be difficult for them to even decide where to station them, which base should get the priority ? I don't really care about IAF because main user is IA, they are the one who has to walk 40 miles just to reach the post while you can reach their within minutes if you operate helicopters which they should because if these posts and bases gets attacked in the future our forces will be very vulnerable and we can very easily lose those areas.
Yes you are correct, I have always thought 12 heavy lift and 22 attack helos are way too small for IA/IAF and seems as a move purely to replace old stock and not expand capacity. I mean with India's new found prosperity they could easily afford 5-7 times more. I just don't know what these guys were thinking- buying 1 SQD only??!! It's almost not worth doing as the infrastructure needed to be set up is a major cost of the deals so after this outlay the IAF should take advantage of economies of scale and buy as many as they can afford.