Powered by RedCircle
A Philippine Delegation composed of Officials from the Philippine Navy (PN), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Department of National Defense (DND) recently went onboard the INS Shakti (A57), a Fleet Tanker of the Indian Navy (IN) that was visiting the Philippines, to be briefed about the Dhruv Helicopter for possible acquisition.
The Officials were told about the Helicopter's Technical Specifications, Operational Features and potential Applications in the Philippines. They were also shown a flying Demonstration of the Helicopter's Capabilities.
India had also already offered the Dhruv to the Philippine Army (PA) and Philippine Air Force (PAF) before. The Dhruv is made by the state-owned Indian Company “Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), it is a Utility Helicopter that is just slightly heavier than the Bell 412 Helicopters and around the same Maximum Take Off Weight (MTOW) as the AW159 Wildcat Helicopters that the Philippines already operates.
The Dhruv has had a long and solid record with the Indian Armed Forces which started operating them in 1992 and now has around approximately 180 units in Service. However, the Helicopter Brand has had a sort of disastrous experience with its Exports thus far. Several other Nations have bought and used them, but only in small numbers.
The only Country which bought a relatively large number of them was Ecuador who bought seven of them in 2009. However, by 2015 already four out of those seven Helicopters had crashed, prompting Ecuador to withdraw the Helicopter from Service, citing the non-delivery of Spare Parts and high Crash Rate as the Reasons for doing so.
In fairness, the Dhruv has had a much better safety record within India where such crashes were not anywhere near as often. But India will have to address the Issues raised by Ecuador if it is to convince other Countries to buy the Helicopter.
I would also recommend that since there are already several Dhruv Helicopter Simulators in the Market, then the Indian Government should tie up with the Companies that make them and include such Simulators in every major Sale as much as possible.
This is to ensure that the Pilots are being properly trained at Simulator Level first before they start using the real ones, this will help improve the Safety of both the Helicopters and the Pilots.
For the Philippines’ side, if they are pushing thru with getting Dhruv Helicopters, they might want to order a few Units first, like say six and then see how Things go operationally for at least a couple of Years first before making a bigger order. I noticed that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has already been doing that with most of their purchases now anyway.
SOURCES:
* Philippine Delegation assesses India's ALH-Dhruv Helicopter for Potential Acquisition {Archived Link}
Check out the Links to my other Social Media Accounts at https://linktr.ee/rhk111
Don’t forget to click on the Ads or to donate to help support this Website.
 |
| The Indian Dhruv Helicopter for the Philippines? |
No comments:
Post a Comment