When Arm Chair Strategists Spew Out Whole Sale Nonsense
Colonel Awadhesh Kumar, Special Forces
The Induction of the AH-64 Apache in to the Indian Air Force (and later into the army) will certainly not revolutionize the way India fights but will definitely modernize our war fighting capabilities with added punch. This is simply due to fact that our previous helicopters for such tasks are now on their last leg the venerable MI35/ MI24.
AH-64 may have a record for flying for almost 30 minutes, gliding to a safe location even after its engine was taken out but even MI24 has many such tales of Combat in Afghanistan and SriLanka. And NO just NO, they were not shot down in Afghanistan like flies as the Americans would like everyone to believe. In Sri Lanka these MI24s used to come back many a times with multiple hits on their underbellies.
Being a modern design and having latest technologies the Apaches have better countermeasures against optically guided missiles and thus better survivability than vintage hepters. Thus as far as defence of the platform goes, be it armour, or redundancy in being able to fly to safely or take out shoulder-fired infrared missiles, the Apache is naturally top notch in its category.
Also this hepter has all three sensors radar, optical and infrared and the ability to fuse together the information received from all the sensors. This fused information is then utilized to guide its own missiles on to the target. It means that any single countermeasure cannot overwhelm the on coming missile from an Apache For example, an infrared countermeasure can blind optical or infrared missiles, but it cannot blind a radar-guided missile.
In spite of all the modern devices an Apache still remains a helicopter only. It cannot take the place of fighter aircrafts, no matter what the manufacturers and their sales people may peddle. Also IAF and the Indian Army are not foolish enough to fall in the trap of the Vendors and go in for a huge fleet of Apache. In addition to the incoming two squadrons we can have another say four squadrons to look after the heavy onslaught of enemy mechanized forces.
For lighter tasks our Light Combat Helicopter are excellent and slowly we will have a squadron with each Corps Aviation Brigade coming up. At brigade and Division level, a flight of armed versions of Light recce helicopter will be good enough. Meanwhile armed version of Dhruv, the Rudra will be filling the gap.
Coming to the stealth, many think that F35 because of stealth is the ultimate fighter. Well a fighter like Sukhoi 57 with speed and agility and many other features can make up for stealth and can take on a F35. It will then be known to the F35 that stealth cannot replace the need for self defence systems.
And talking about precision ammunitions, if they are so precise then Afghan war and Iraq war would have finished in minutes. Here we must also mention those experts who think that Sukhoi 30 MKI has been a failure. Then why are the Americans shivering after the shooting down of their F16 by a MIG 21 ? It is because of the prowess of Sukhoi 30 MKI which turned the American missiles into duds.
Each of these procurement show that IAF is highly professional with a clear mind. IAF knows that in each segment that is transport, helicopters and fighters we are mastering the manufacturing in the lighter category. Once fully established then IAF will have as many of Saras, Dhruv and Tejas and their next versions as they wish. Next is the medium category where tentative steps are being taken and till that time IAF will order only for the minimum. In the heavy category we are off presently and so IAF again goes only for the bare minimum. The Indian Air Force makes the best use of even obsolete old assets in the best possible way. MIG Bison, Avros, Jaguars are living examples. Then our pilots have shown in a real dog fight that even with vintage fighters they can knock out better ones. So IAF will not buy a foreign product in high quantities so as just to create economies of scale or enable deep technology transfer……the foreigners can keep it with themselves, we will not get dazzled. Only a self styled Wise Persona but actually OTHERWISE will have the temerity to state that IAF led by its Chief Marshal Dhanoa is afflicted with severe myopia of higher defence planning.
