The urgent need to replace the Indian military's ageing fleet of licence-built Cheetah (Aerospatiale SA315B Lama) light observation helicopters (LOH) was again highlighted after one crashed in northeastern Nagaland state on 2 February.
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| India Suffers Another Cheetah Crash. |
Lieutenant General Bipin Rawat and two Army Aviation Corps (AAC) officers sustained injuries after their Cheetah nosedived into the ground seconds after taking off from Dimapur, near the Myanmar border.
A court of inquiry has been ordered into the accident, but AAC officers told "platform obsolescence" was responsible for the accident, even though the Cheetah's engine had recently been overhauled.
The Indian Air Force and the AAC inducted Cheetahs and Chetaks (Aerospatiale Alouette IIIs) into service in the mid-1960s. Of these, 140 Cheetahs and over 200 Chetaks remain in service.
In November 2014 around 28 spouses of AAC pilots and technicians created a group demanding the platforms' withdrawal from service. They claimed 191 of the helicopters had crashed over the past two decades, killing 294 personnel.
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