Indian Army has its own air force wing for performing certain errands in which Indian Air Force need not be involved. There are several types of aircrafts and choppers which the army presses into service in times of emergency and need. Very often the army is called upon to perform emergency rescue operations in a situation of floods, fires and other natural calamities. Army needs its own air support facility and that is the reason why it maintains its fleet of aircrafts.
Replying to a question in the Parliament, the Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said that a total of 48 military aircraft and 21 helicopters were lost to crashes since 2011 in which 79 people were killed. He added that each crash was inquired into and the discrepancies were plugged if detected.
The question is that this is a fairly alarming number of losses of the air machines and the human beings. At any cost the loss has to be minimized and the responsible people at the helm of affairs should ensure that the loss level is brought down. There is also the need of updating the machines and dumping those that are no more serviceable. We expect the Defence Ministry authorities and the Army Headquarter to join heads and frame a long term policy that will be meeting periodically and retiring the old and obsolete machines and replacing these with fresh ones. This has to be done with a view to increase operational capability.
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