Agusta deal over, MoD looks at options

Several options are being considered by the ministry in consultation with the Air Force to ensure that choppers are available for travel of VVIPs.

Following the termination of the AgustaWestland deal for AW 101 choppers, the Defence Ministry is now looking at options to ferry VVIPs, given that the service life of the existing Mi 8 fleet being operated by the communication squadron of the Air Force is drawing to an end this year.

Several options are being considered by the ministry in consultation with the Air Force to ensure that choppers are available for travel of VVIPs — President, Prime Minister and senior Cabinet ministers — over the next few months as concerns have surfaced about the safety of the Mi 8 fleet that has now been in service for 26 years and has seen several scares in the past due to technical issues.

With the option of the AW 101 VVIP choppers firmly out of the window, sources said one option that has been floated by the Air Force is to extend the life of the existing fleet of eight Mi 8s in incremental levels over the next few months.

The Mi 8s — six were initially inducted into the VIP squadron in 1988 and two more were introduced later — are at the very edge of their maximum service life that can at best be extended to 30 years. As per current standards, the extended total technical life of the fleet is coming to an end this year. While this can, technically speaking, be extended for another four years, it is not considered to be safe for VVIP duty, given that the choppers will be at the very end of their air frame life.

The second option being looked out — one most likely to meet the requirement — is to upgrade some choppers of the newly acquired Mi 17 V5 fleet that has been inducted by the Air Force. The new choppers, which come with state-of-the-art avionics and more powerful engines and proved their mettle in the Uttarakhand evacuations, can be retrofitted by the air force itself for VVIP travel, the defence ministry has been informed. This option is the easiest to implement at short notice, given that adequate numbers of the choppers are in duty and are also being bought as follow on orders from Russia.

The option of initiating a new acquisition process for VVIP choppers is also being considered with consultations having commenced between the Defence Ministry and other stakeholders like the PMO, Home Ministry and the Special Protection Group. However, given that this new acquisition process would take at least three-four years and would involve detailed consultations to draw up technical specifications, it is not being looked at as very viable. Also, given the present political climate, it would be difficult to initiate a new procurement process for VVIP travel.

The fourth option before the defence ministry is to temporarily lease choppers in the VVIP configuration from international players as an interim measure.