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Further Reading

Indian Navy Helicopters

The Indian Navy plans mid-life upgrades of 11,000 kg Kamov-28 and 9,700 kg Sea King anti-submarine helicopters for Rs 600 crore and Rs 850 crore respectively.

The anti-submarine and anti-surface Sea King helicopters were built by Westland under licence from Sikorksy. The Indian Navy had about 40 Sea King copters initially but by 2008 had only about half of them, and most of them were over 30-years old. In 2003 a $150 million modernisation plan has been approved for the Westland Sea King helicopters. The Sea Kings were received from Westland Helicopters of the U.K but fell into disrepair when the USA imposed military sanctions, preventing India from sourcing Sikorsky- manufactured original equipment parts. The Indian Navy then attempted to obtain some Sea King spares from local industry sources, including components for gearboxes, rotor systems, sonar systems and defence electronics items for avionics. However, these fell short of reliability requirements and led to some limitations in the ASW operations. The mid-life upgrade now involves replacing the engine, avionics systems, mission computer, radar system and missiles.

The Indian Navy had been interested in procuring a Sea King replacement from overseas for some years, with the Naval Helicopter program being re-tendered in 2007 because none of the respondents were said to have met the technical specifications (itself not an unheard of phenomenon in India).

During 2005-2006 Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) set the ball rolling for the design, development and manufacture of a 10-ton class multi-role helicopter for the services. The project would be undertaken in collaboration with a reputed foreign company. In March 2007 HAL invited proposals from international partners including Russian helicopter manufacturer for co-development of a Multi-role Helicopter (10 tonnes).

By mid-2008 the Navy planned to induct new 10-ton-class multi-role helicopters, an order estimated to be worth $1 billion. In September 2008 the Indian Ministry of Defence issued a tender for at least 16 advanced multi-role naval helicopters. AgustaWestland's AW101, EADS's EC 725 Cougar and Sikorsky's Seahawk were expected to compete for the contract, which could expand by an additional 44 units. The multi-role helicopters will be equipped with anti-ship and anti-submarine armaments, including cruise missiles and torpedoes. The helicopters, capable of mid-air refueling, will operate from naval vessels and land bases.

In November 2008 the Indian Navy decided not to use the 'Dhruv' advanced light helicopter, manufactured by HAL, Bangalore, for anti-submarine warfare and sent a 'request for proposal' (RFP) for another multi-role helicopter. The Navy had acquired ten 'Dhruv' helicopters from HAL with the understanding that the first six would be used in a utility role, for search and rescue and transportation, while the remaining four would be converted for ASW operations. However, because of their size and weight, these helicopters were found unsuitable to discharge their function at sea for ASW and the Navy had now decided to use all ten in the utility role.

In January 2009 the US-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation offered S-70B Seahawk multi-role helicopters to replace the Indian Navy's ageing Sea King helicopter fleet. The Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation responded to the RFP (request for proposal) from the Indian Navy for replacement of 16 Sea King helicopters, though it expected the Indian Navy to place orders for more than 16. The US Navy has also offered the Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin-built MH-60R for the same order. The Sikorsky-built MH-60R multi-role helicopter is the US Navy's recently deployed anti-submarine and surface warfare helicopter with Lockheed Martin equipment. Sikorsky offered both the S-70B Seahawk as a commercial direct sale and the MH-60R as an FMS under the DSCA.

Sikorsky also offered its helicopters for the Indian Coast Guard, which wants to replace 16 of its helicopters, having responded to the Coast Guard's RFI (Request for Information). Sikorsky planned to offer either the S-70 or the S76 or even the bigger S-92 for the Indian Coast Guard.

On 14 February 2009 Russian helicopter officials at the AeroIndia 2009 show said that the Russian aerospace complex was gearing up to bid for a total order of 320 military helicopters from the three wings of the Indian defence services. Rosoboronexport was participating in a number of tender involving the Ka-226T multi-role helicopter and the Mi-28H Night Hunter helicopter gunship. The company was in talks with the ministry of defence for the modernization of radar systems installed on Ka-31 helicopters used by the Indian Navy.