The Comptroller and Auditor General(CAG)on Friday pulled up the Defence Ministry for delay in replacing ageing helicopter fleet of Army Aviation Corps and said the unit was facing a shortage of 32 per cent vis-à-vis authorised strength.
Making this observation in its report tabled in Parliament, the CAG noted that 52 per cent of the Aviation Corps fleet was more than 30 years old and the “effective availability of helicopters got further reduced to 40 per cent due to low level of serviceability of the existing fleet.”
At present, the Army has 181 Cheetah and Chetak helicopters and 51 of them are more than 40 years old and 78 are between 30-40 years old. The CAG noted that ever since these helicopters were approved for de-induction in 2002, 23 helicopters had met with accidents. Chetak and Cheetah helicopters are the lifeline of troops stationed at Siachen Glacier and other inaccessible areas in leh and ladakh besides Arunachal Pradesh and North-East.
The watchdog said despite these shortcomings, Army Aviation Corps could not replace its fleet of Cheetah and Chetaks which are due for de-induction since 10th Plan period (2002-2007) onwards.
A group of Army officers’ wives had in March this year urged Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to stop the use of “outdated” Cheetah and Chetak helicopters, which have claimed a number of lives.
The Government had last August scrapped a `6,000-crore tender for procuring 197 light utility helicopters from foreign vendors for the armed forces and decided to allow domestic players to manufacture these helicopters. The global tender for the project, however, is yet to be floated.
The CAG also tabled a report on IAF. The country’s top auditor also slammed the Indian Air Force for sub-optimal utilisation of operational capabilities of AWACS (air borne warning and control system) aircraft purchased in 2004 for `5,042 crore and has said shortage of aircrew may impact the operations of the planes during hostilities. It further pointed out the low serviceability of the Sukhois, country’s front-line combat aircraft.