Indian Air Force Chinook | Burning Issues | PDF Download

CHINOOK HELICOPTERS TO BE FORMALLY INDUCTED INTO INDIAN AIR FORCE

•  The first batch of four Chinook military helicopters manufactured by the American aerospace major Boeing has arrived at the Mundra port in Gujarat.
• This first batch consignment will be ferried to Chandigarh, where they will be formally inducted into the Indian Air Force in 2019.

CHINOOK HELICOPTERS

• Chinook is a multi-role, vertical-lift platform, which is used for transporting troops, artillery, equipment and fuel. Chinook would be deployed for humanitarian and disaster relief operations and in missions such as transportation of relief supplies and mass evacuation of refugees.
• The advanced multi-mission helicopter Chinook will provide the Indian armed forces with unmatched strategic airlift capability across the full spectrum of combat and humanitarian missions.

WHY CHINOOK MATTERS

• The Chinooks are a huge capability enhancement for the forces since they can carry not just troops but also artillery guns and even light armoured vehicles to high altitudes, which makes a lot of difference to the capability along the northern borders.
• K9 Vajra and M777 howitzers

USES OF CHINOOK

• The Chinooks will also come handy in the delayed construction of strategic roads and infrastructure projects on the border, especially in the northeast.
• The main challenge was the access and want of heavy lift choppers to carry heavy equipment through narrow valleys.

THE DEAL

• The four CH-47F (I) Chinook helicopters, part of the 15 contracted by India from US firm Boeing in September 2015 for over Rs 8,000 crore, were commissioned into the IAF’s 126 Helicopter Unit, nicknamed ‘Featherweights’, at Chandigarh.

MI-26 CHOPPERS AND CHINOOK

• India currently operates four Mi-26 choppers, bought from Russia in the 1980s, but their maintenance has been an issue. Of the four, only one is operational.
• The choppers will now undergo extensive overhaul and repair in Russia and will continue to serve the IAF.

THE COMCASA

•  India uses several US platforms like the P-8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft, C-130 and C17   heavy-lift aircraft, Chinook helicopters

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