Anti-submarine helicopter acquisition delay has Navy in dire straits

NEW DELHI: Indian warships continue to operate on the high seas without the critical multi-role helicopters that can detect and destroy enemy submarines. At a time when Chinese submarines are docking even at Karachi, the Navy is still nowhere near getting the advanced choppers due to the government's slow decision-making process.

Adding another jolt to the Navy's 15-year-old quest for new multi-role helicopters (MRH), American firm Sikorsky has demanded a steep hike from India for the proposed acquisition of 16 of its S-70B choppers on the ground that contract finalization has been pending for several years.

The project cost for the 16 heavy-duty helicopters was pegged at Rs 1,760 crore when it got the initial "acceptance of necessity" by the defence ministry in 2008. But these will now come for atleast thrice that price, said MoD sources.



"Yes, the country ends up paying much more because of the long delays in decision-making and convoluted procurement procedures. But Sikorsky is now also asking for some cost escalation linked to deliveries that will begin 3-4 years after the contract is inked...We cannot agree to this," said a MoD source.

Sikorsky, in effect, will have to blink if it wants to bag the lucrative contract, which envisages acquisition of another eight choppers after the first 16 under the repeat option clause. India has now also begun preliminary groundwork to issue the tender for an even bigger naval MRH project for 123 helicopters under the "Make in India" policy with foreign collaboration.

MRHs are "a critical operational necessity" since the Navy is down to just 11 Kamov-28 and 17 Sea King anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters, half of them currently in a moth-balled condition, to defend its existing fleet of 140 warships. The Sea Kings are well over 20 years old. The Kamov-28s, too, have been waiting for a mid-life upgrade for the last several years since Russia is also demanding a huge hike.

Consequently, most Indian warships are relatively naked in the submarine-infested waters of the Indian Ocean Region. ASW helicopters typically fly ahead of warships to "dunk" their sonars into the deep waters, "listen" for enemy submarines and fire torpedoes against them to clear the path for the fleet.

In the 9 to 12.5-tonne class, MRH also have missiles as well as electronic warfare and early-warning suites. The various helicopter acquisition plans, to induct around 1,200 choppers over the next 10-15 years, in fact have all been dogged by long delays, scams and scrapping of tenders.