Indian Army will replace Cheetah-Chetak helicopter, Apache Helicopter will join the fleet; Know their specialty

In view of the military challenges of the new era, the Army has now decided to retire the multi-purpose helicopters Cheetah and Chetak, which have been the main pillars of its strategic capability for the last five decades. The Indian Army, which has already decided to acquire the attack helicopter Apache to increase military firepower, will also strengthen its multi-role helicopter fleet.

Under this, the Army will retire all its old helicopters and add about 250 new helicopters to its aviation wing within the next 10 to 12 years. The largest contribution to the new modern helicopter fleet will be the indigenously built multirole light utility helicopter, Dhruv. In view of the new era of threats on the eastern and western borders of the country, the Army does not want to limit the air wing only to the supporting role of strategic operations but wants to further expand its role.

The issue related to the design challenges of the Dhruv manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has been resolved. Testing of autopilot is also going on in it, which will eliminate the challenges of flying in high-altitude areas. Sharing information about starting the process of retiring Cheetah and Chetak after the next three to four years, the source said that the capacity of these two helicopters has not been exhausted yet.