IAF protests ‘widen red role’ order

[arp2041]

The Indian Air Force has been asked to expand Operation Triveni — the air support for counter-Maoist operations — to eight states from five but it has told the government that its helicopters are running unacceptable risks because of poor support from the Union home ministry and the state governments.

The home ministry is in fact hoping that it will have greater co-operation from the defence ministry in the counter-Maoist operations with a new army chief, General Bikram Singh, taking over last month.

But the IAF, the only military outfit directly involved officially in the counter-Maoist operations, is now finding it difficult to sustain Operation Triveni in the absence of infrastructure.

The former army chief, General V.K. Singh, who retired on May 31, had resolutely opposed home ministry proposals to involve the army in counter-Maoist operations.

Earlier this month, V.K. Singh had told The Telegraph that in November 2011, the Union home ministry had come up with a “flat-headed proposal” to re-deploy some of the 63 battalions of the Rashtriya Rifles from Jammu and Kashmir to Maoist-hit districts in Chhattisgarh “to secure the camps of 75 battalions of the central police forces while the police would go out into the jungles to hunt for Naxals”.

V.K. Singh said he had turned down the proposal because it was unworkable and added that the home ministry was treating the army not as “an instrument of last resort as defence minister A.K. Antony has been saying” but as a constabulary.

Now the air force has told the government that its helicopters have been shot at about 10 times in the recent past. On four occasions, suspected Maoists have hit the helicopters with small arms but the sturdiness of the Mi-17s and the precautions taken by the aircrew — such as steep dives to land and steep take-offs — have been chiefly responsible for the no-casualty report on the air operation.

In 2008, an IAF crewman in a helicopter was killed in ground fire by Maoists near Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, as his chopper was taking-off.

In pointing out that the helicopters have taken flak four times, the IAF is also warning the government that the Maoists are getting better at targeting and that they have developed the firepower. The copters deployed in the counter-Maoist operations are armoured.

Operation Triveni, the codename given to the “air maintenance” of troops in Maoist-hit districts, began in 2010 with two Mi 17 helicopters. The number was first increased to four and now stands at six, and the operation has been expanded to cover Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Areas from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha have been added recently.

The home ministry has also asked the IAF for more helicopters because BSF copters were not flight-worthy enough in critical situations. The Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand governments have also been chartering private helicopters for the counter-Maoist operations.

The home ministry’s insistence has increased largely because its plan to wet-lease 13 Mi-17 helicopters was practically nixed after the former army chief indicted businessman Ravi Rishi’s company in a deal for Tatra trucks. The Mi-17 multi-utility helicopters cost an estimated Rs 45 crore each.

Ravi Rishi also owns Global Vectra Helicorp, the largest private supplier of helicopters in the country, through which the home ministry was planning to lease the helicopters. The directorate-general of civil aviation was asked to suspend Global Vectra’s licence in the wake of the Tatra row.

In presentations to the government, the IAF has said it would continue with its task of moving central police forces and equipment and evacuating casualties but wants the state governments to set up hangars and secure helipads for its copters.

The IAF has said the tasking for its helicopters must be routed through an inspector-general of the CRPF based in Raipur.

“We get too many requests for helicopter support that are not routed through the tasking officer. We have been ordered to take our brief from him but the police just call at random and ask for helicopters without appreciating how we operate,” an IAF officer said.

The officer said that in south Chhattisgarh’s Jagdalpur, for example, from where the IAF helicopters have flown frequently in support of central forces, the hangars were not yet built. Even in Chintalnar, an area near Mukram where the Maoists killed 75 central policemen on April 6, 2010, the IAF is unsure if the helipad is sanitised.

The air force had also asked the state and central forces to “pre-position” fuel stocks. But this has not been done. The IAF has said that the local administration in the Maoist-hit areas should “pre-position” fuel.

Also, said the officer: “They want us to switch off the engines without sanitising helipads in risky areas. The standard operating procedure requires that the IAF helicopters descend on helipads in risky areas in a steep dive, keep the engines and rotors running, and take off in two minutes.”

IAF protests ‘widen red role’ order

 

[swathi]

CRPF has to have its own fleet of Helicopters, It must not depend upon IAF for helicopters.

 

[Fazlu]

Using the armed forces to quell internal disturbances will ruin it and affect their preparedness against external threats.

Instead of blaming the IAF, home ministry must see this as an opportunity to improve the police infrastructure.

Refurbishing CRPF copters, acquiring more air transport/support options has to be given priority.

 

[Ajaxpaul]

Infact IA should use their own fleet of Helicopters and should be directly involved.

Where the hell is the Apache ?

 

[Markus]

Infact IA should use their own fleet of Helicopters and should be directly involved.

Where the hell is the Apache ?

Expensive and offensive helis like Apache cannot be used against Maoists.

What if the Maoists manage to bring one of them down?

 

[harpoon]

Expensive and offensive helis like Apache cannot be used against Maoists.

What if the Maoists manage to bring one of them down?

If it can be brought down by the rag tag Maoists, its better we don't buy it.

Infact IA should use their own fleet of Helicopters and should be directly involved.

Where the hell is the Apache ?

My question is why IAF is clinging on to the rotary aircrafts. In all modern armies almost all land based rotary aircrafts are operated by army

 

[Fazlu]

If it can be brought down by the rag tag Maoists, its better we don't buy it.

The Apache is quite resilient against small arms fire. I dont know how it fares against high yielding ordinances.

 

[Markus]

If it can be brought down by the rag tag Maoists, its better we don't buy it.

Maoists are no rag tag.

And if India tomorrow starts using Apaches, whats the guarantee that Maoists' external supporters will not supply them with sophisticated arms ?

 

[Ajaxpaul]

Expensive and offensive helis like Apache cannot be used against Maoists.

What if the Maoists manage to bring one of them down?

Apache can withstand even 50 callibre bullets and RPG-7's.

Unless Maoist have Stingers and Igla's Apache will be effective. We have to smoke them out of jungle though...Anybody has other ideas ?

 

[Fazlu]

We could adopt the same strategy we adopted to deal with the naga and naxal crisis. But it would mean unacceptable bloodshed at this time and age.

 

[GR!FF!N]

using air power(gunships,aircraft) against its own people is against Indian policy.Helicopter is only used as air ambulance and to transport and they only can fire in self defence.

 

[SamantK]

Maoists are still considered an internal security issue hence the rag tag armed forces... The day it goes to a extent were a leader will declare it an external threat, you can say TATA bye bye to Maoists...

 

[Ajaxpaul]

We could adopt the same strategy we adopted to deal with the naga and naxal crisis. But it would mean unacceptable bloodshed at this time and age.

Yes it would mean death on both sides.

Isnt it better to use a force speciallized in jungle warfare, rather than using CRPF as cannon fodder without any sophisticated weapons ?

using air power(gunships,aircraft) against its own people is against Indian policy.Helicopter is only used as air ambulance and to transport and they only can fire in self defence.

By using air and ground forces, India runs a risk of its own people turning their backs on Govt. Yes it is a risk...But whether it is police or army, we have to use force. So why not specialized teams with better coordination ?

 

[Fazlu]

Yes it would mean death on both sides.

Isnt it better to use a force speciallized in jungle warfare, rather than using CRPF as cannon fodder without any sophisticated weapons ?




By using air and ground forces, India runs a risk of its own people turning their backs on Govt. Yes it is a risk...But whether it is police or army, we have to use force. So why not specialized teams with better coordination ?

But why not improve the CRPF infrastructure and introduce better training programmes instead ?

Quick fixes do not last long.

 

[whythiskolaveridi]

But why not improve the CRPF infrastructure and introduce better training programmes instead ?

Quick fixes do not last long.

CRPF has already been trained by the Army for anti naxal operations and jungle warfare. they have been provided with sophisticated weapons as far as possible (X95). A specialized force CoBRA has been carved out from CRPF for specialized operations. What else we lack. its only will which we lack now, politically and militarily.