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1. NON-NERD ALERT: India's $2.6 billion MH-60R deal for 24 helicopters explained in simpler terms. As follows ...
2. India presently operates variants of the Sea King helicopter, a masterpiece of aviation design. A true classic. But heres the catch - India's first Sea King became operational on July 1971, 48 years ago. Read that again. 48 years ago.
3. Though the Navy went on to acquire newer build Sea Kings, they are now antique and there are only a handful that fly. Despite this, the old war horse continues to prove its worth - it did yeoman's service during the Kerala floods.
4. But over a period of time, the availability of spares became difficult, if not impossible. There was an element of desi-jugad that also went into keeping these birds flying but their days were clearly numbered.
5. The situation is so bad in the Indian Navy that virtually none of its frontline destroyers and frigates operate any of the remaining Sea Kings - in other words, our warships, which are state of the art, do not embark an anti-submarine helicopter, by and large.
6. Its a tragic excuse that the Indian Navy presently operates the large majority of its warships using the Chetak helicopter (Alouette III), a chopper that made its first flight on 28 February 1959. You can read that again. No mistake in the date.
7. So therefore, when the Indian Navy pleaded with the government for new helicopters, they weren't kidding. They were desperate for new multi-role choppers. But that was not to be .. till now.
8. The prices of the MH-60 were proving to be unacceptably high ... and negotiations collapsed. Now, finally, there is hope. We will have choppers on our warships which will fly for 3 odd decades with state of the art technology.
9. With India having signed COMCASA, one of the foundational agreements that the US insisted upon, it is my understanding that these choppers are entirely compatible with US warships, aircraft and choppers and drones.
10. This means, our MH-60R choppers can share targeting data on a real time basis and prosecute targets by land, sea and underwater (primarily) by working together in a network centric environment. This is what modern warfare is all about.
11. In simpler terms, an enemy submarine, hundreds of kilometres away from our warships, now has to escape detection by a state of the art system designed to sniff it out. If it is detected, it will be torpedoed. This chopper is, therefore, a huge defensive aid for our ships.
12. But there is one sting in the tail ... This deal makes mention of the NSM - the Naval Strike Missile ... and India appears to have bought training components without the actual missile. Why? The NSM is a huge game-changer by targeting ships 185 kms away. Interesting.
