Indian Navy, Coast Guard to get 76 new copters for maritime surveillance

The Ministry of Defence is aiming to procure 76 naval utility helicopters — 51 for the Navy and 25 for the Coast Guard. These helicopters will be used for maritime surveillance, utility tasks, disaster management and low-intensity maritime operations.

The ministry has also issued a request for information (RFI) — which is the first step in the tendering process — to acquire these copters from original equipment manufacturers with the ability to manufacture helicopters in India.

“These helicopters should be able to perform multiple roles by day and night -- including maritime search and rescue operations, casualty evacuation, and carry troops and cargo,” said the MoD.

It is also looking at twin-engine copters with a payload carrying capacity of 5.5 tonnes. These copters will be used for operations from ship-deck, and should also have the ability to operate out at sea. Since the MoD is targeting to use the copters for low-intensity operations, it seeks an automatically fired heavy machine gun or a medium machine gun. For such operations, the copter needs to have some level armour plating to prevent bullets (fired by the adversary) from damaging the copter.

The Navy and the Coast Guard currently use a mix of copters for roles defined in the RFI. This includes the advanced light helicopter produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL); Cheetah/Chetak, produced in India from and based on the French-designed Aérospatiale Alouette III and from the Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama.

The RFI issued for the 76 copters today is the second RFI for procuring helicopters this month. Earlier, the MoD issued an RFI for 200 helicopters — 120 for reconnaissance and surveillance tasks of the aviation corps of the Army while the remaining 80 will be for the Indian Air Force.

A demand to retire ageing choppers has gained traction in recent years in the wake of a string of accidents, including several fatal ones.