A day after the US grounded its entire fleet of 400 Chinook helicopters due to a “small number” of fires in the engine, India on Wednesday said it will have little impact on the IAF, and it will continue flying them.
India has procured 15 Chinooks from the US in the last few years.
While the flying operations are on at the moment, the IAF has sought a report from the US about the reasons for grounding the heavy lift helicopter, sources said here.
The Chinook is a twin rotor helicopter and the IAF uses them for operations in the high altitude regions like Ladakh, Siachen and some inaccessible regions in the north-east, including Arunachal Pradesh.
Besides carrying troops and equipment, the Chinooks are also capable of slinging the light artillery guns like the M-777 from one point to another, thereby providing operational flexibility to the local commanders in remote mountainous areas.
The first batch of these helicopters was inducted into the IAF in 2019, and the delivery of all the helicopters was completed by 2020 by its manufacturer Boeing. India inked a deal in September 2015 worth 3.1 billion dollars for 15 Chinooks and 22 Apache attack helicopters.
All the helicopters are now operating in the IAF.
The IAF’s Chinooks set a record in April this year by flying the longest, non-stop helicopter sortie in India, with the operational training task requiring it to fly from Chandigarh to Jorhat. It flew a distance of 1,910 km in seven-and-a-half hours.
Meanwhile, reports from Washington said the US Army has grounded its entire fleet of Chinook helicopters, a battlefield workhorse since the 1960s, over the risk of engine fires. The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story, said such an extreme step was taken out of abundance of caution.
Officials told the Wall Street Journal the US Army was aware of a small number of engine fires in the helicopters, and the incidents did not result in any injuries or deaths.
“One of the officials said the fires occurred in recent days,” the
Journal said. “The US Army Materiel Command grounded the fleet of hundreds of helicopters out of an abundance of caution.”
The grounding of the heavy-lift Chinook helicopters could pose logistical challenges for American soldiers, depending on how long the order lasts, the Journal said.
Army spokesperson Cynthia Smith said the Army has identified the cause of the leaks and is working to resolve the problem. Smith said some helicopters may not require the fix, so they may be able to return to flight soon, according to AP.
The fleet was grounded during the past weekend. Smith said there were no injuries or deaths associated with the fires but the Army temporarily grounded the fleet out of an abundance of caution.
The Chinook is the Army’s key heavy-lift helicopter, used to transport troops and equipment, and was a familiar sight in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.