Black Hawk eager to fly for India

[SpArK]

Black Hawk eager to fly for India​

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Manufacturers to give presentation to Defence Ministry on June 20​

New Delhi, June 18
Famous American gunship — Black Hawk — is ready for sale to India. However, it is not yet clear whether this legendary flying machine is being offered with stealth technology.

Highly placed Defence Ministry sources told The Tribune that a special team of the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, which manufactures Black Hawk, will give a detailed presentation on this helicopter in the Defence Ministry on June 20.

This will be Black Hawk’s first presentation to India. It is not linked to any defence deal under consideration. “We just want to evaluate this machine as part of futuristic war scenario. We will take a call on the stealth technology after the presentation,” sources said.

Asked whether India would go for the stealth technology, the sources said, “Of course, but let us first see what actually is being offered during the presentation.”

The Americans are offering latest UH-60M Black Hawk. Despite strong military ties with Pakistan, the US has not sold Black Hawks to Islamabad.

After doing much in-house brain storming, the US Administration has permitted private sector Sikorsky to offer Black Hawk to India. Black Hawk is the world’s most expensive helicopter — primarily because of its highly classified state-of-art avionics, radars, weapons and fighting capability.

The Americans some time ago offered Black Hawk’s naval version Seahawk to New Delhi. Seahawk is in the race for the Navy’s over $1 billion deal for 16 multi-role helicopters. The naval deal is at the final stage. Tenders are likely to be opened in near future. Seahawk’s rival is NH90 chopper produced by the NATO Helicopter Industries (NHI), a European consortium of firms from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Finland and Australia.

For the June 20 Black Hawk presentation, besides top officials of the Defence Ministry associated with the procurement of weapons and equipment, senior officers of the Indian Air Force and the Army are also likely to be present.

The Defence Ministry sources said that Black Hawk has generated interest in the IAF as well as the Army, which are ready to look at it for desert as well as high-altitude operations for theatres like Siachen glacier.

Sikorsky helicopters are used by all five branches of the US armed forces, along with military services and commercial operators in many other countries. Black Hawk has become a legendary helicopter in America’s war history. It is playing an active role in Afghanistan and Pakistan in counter-terrorism operations.

• Black Hawk is the world’s most expensive helicopter, primarily because of its highly classified state-of-art avionics, radars, weapons and fighting capability
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  [*] Manufacturers of Black Hawk, the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, will give a detailed presentation in the Defence Ministry on June 20
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  [*]The US is offering latest UH-60M Black Hawk to India. Despite strong military ties with Pakistan, the US has not sold Black Hawks to Islamabad

The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Main News

 

[SpArK]

 

[Darth Vader]

dnt thnk so abt stealth features every 1 knws that US keeps its best stuff to itself anyways good keep the good work

 

[SpArK]

 

[KRAIT]

If we buy this machine, every pakistani will love this movie "Black Hawk Down".....

 

[GR!FF!N]

Black Hawk is amazing helicopter..this helicopter has certain amount of crashworthy capability.i saw an old video where a black hawk crashed from quite a hight but no one was injured.they only repaired rotor and that helo was good to go..

 

[Abingdonboy]

This will be interesting to watch for many reasons. The stealth part i would say was the newspaper getting carried away- as of now the use of a "stealth" UH-60 in OBL raid is mere speculation and no offical statement has been made regarding the existence of such helos. Additionally it is unclear that if such machines do exist whether they were made from the start as stealth helos or such modifications were made after sale. Not only would these machines likely be INCREDIBLY expensive but it is highly doubtful the US would be willing to sell such sensitive equipment to India right now, I don't think they have any plans to even give it to Isreal- their closest ally. So, I would take the stealth Black Hawk offer/talk of offer with a ton of salt.

But the UH-60M offer to India is VERY interesting, but what is even more so is the fact that it seems Sikorsky has been invited to give a presentation on the UH-60 so it shows there is an interest. The offer is not particuasrly new as it has been said in the ppast that the US is willing to sell the Black Hawk and provded enough are bought they will even set up production lines in India. Also what is interesting is that IA officals will be present, tradtionally largeish helos were the sole domain of the IAF but there is a defeinte transition/evolution process happening wherein the IA AAC is rapidily increasing in size and scope so the UH-60 could come at a perfect time for the AAC and it could be the IA that operates these whilst the IAF maintins their new MI-17-V5 fleet. Another interesting aspect could be the possibilty of going for specilised versions such as for SOFs, the IA has already stated they are going to set up a dedicated SOAR and we have certainly seen Indian SOFs being emboldened and a mindset change where much more emphasis is put on Indian SOFs and they are certainly getting a much bigger budget and supporting elements (C-130s case and point) so maybe IA go for, say, the MH-60L/M SOF version and the IAF go for the HH-60G for CSAR/Garuds.



With Indian forces also being given presentations on V-22 not long ago it certainly seems something is cooking- watch this space!

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Famous American gunship — Black Hawk — is ready for sale to India. However, it is not yet clear whether this legendary flying machine is being offered with stealth technology.

Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/indian-defence/188357-black-hawk-eager-fly-india.html#ixzz1yBo7Gc3w

It's not a gunship!

 

[angeldemon_007]

Black Hawk is the world’s most expensive helicopter, primarily because of its highly classified state-of-art avionics, radars, weapons and fighting capability
Manufacturers of Black Hawk, the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, will give a detailed presentation in the Defence Ministry on June 20

Thats a wrong statement...

Black Hawk has alot of versions (meant for different roles) ranging its cost from 5-6 million$ to 36 million$ (S-70B). Cost of the stealth version is unknown. Army's versions are usually not so expensive, reason being this chopper is produced in bulk thereby reducing the per unit cost.

But the UH-60M offer to India is VERY interesting, but what is even more so is the fact that it seems Sikorsky has been invited to give a presentation on the UH-60 so it shows there is an interest.

There's alot of interest from both sides and its not new. This whole interest arose after 2009 when Sikorsky offered the naval version for IN competition. US is now on the next level and they are working on helicopters to replace Black Hawk. Sikorsky is looking to tranfer the production line somewhere else. Its because of this reason that in 2009-2010 Sikorsky even said that if the IN will place an order upto 60 choppers they will shift the black hawk production to India (Its economical for Sikorsky). They are also offering to put powerful engine so that Black Hawk can fly easily in HImalayas if IA or IAF decides to purchase it.

 

[Killswitch]

India already has the mi 17v as a medium chopper.,there is no reason to further complicate the inventory and supply chain.

 

[Avatar]

Even without stealth Black Hawks are quite battle proven and worthy machines, and would be a good complement to our fleet. If they are inducted soon enough they can also be used in anti-maoist ops where we are short on helicopters.

 

[TruthSeeker]

The stealth part i would say was the newspaper getting carried away- as of now the use of a "stealth" UH-60 in OBL raid is mere speculation and no offical statement has been made regarding the existence of such helos. Additionally it is unclear that if such machines do exist whether they were made from the start as stealth helos or such modifications were made after sale.

Peter Bergen in his just-published book, "Manhunt", about the search for bin laden states on page 215:

"... at about 11:00 p.m. local time, the two Black Hawks took off from Jalalabad airport, heading east toward the Pakistani border, which they would cross in about fifteen minutes. The MH-60 choppers were modified so as to remain undetected by Pakistani radar stations which were in "peacetime" mode ...Painted with exotic emulsions designed to help them evade radar, the modified MH-60's also gave off a low heat "signature" in flight, and their tail rotors had been designed to make them less noisy and less susceptible to radar identification. On top of that, the helicopters flew "nap of the earth", which means perilously low and very, very fast ..."



Bergen's book cites many inside sources, including a few mentions of the stealth helicopters, which were considered "experimental" and had not been deployed on a live mission before the bin Laden raid.

 

[acetophenol]

yeah!
We should go for it if we get complete ToT including every thing and a local production,like we did with the Alouettes.

 

[angeldemon_007]

India already has the mi 17v as a medium chopper.,there is no reason to further complicate the inventory and supply chain.

I don't why people call both these choppers in the same categories. Black Hawk can carry close to 15 soldiers while Mi17 can carry around 30 soldiers.

 

[wild_fire1979]

Even without stealth Black Hawks are quite battle proven and worthy machines, and would be a good complement to our fleet. If they are inducted soon enough they can also be used in anti-maoist ops where we are short on helicopters.

Maoist is not a military problem, its a political problem which has been compounded by part political apathy and part inaction. We don't need a fckin 30 mil machine to tackle folks using 303 rifles, we need a political will to root out the cause and the rebels.

But the misfortune of our country is that as far the center is concerned, India is Delhi and Delhi is India for them. Anything else is just news for them

 

[Ajaxpaul]

yeah!
We should go for it if we get complete ToT including every thing and a local production,like we did with the Alouettes.

I dont think Americans will offer ToT. Anyways India may order a small number initially.