Indian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter bd popeye
- Start date
Is Tejas 5th gen minus minus?
5th gen minus stealth.
When you thought that the Jai Kimchis are hilarious enough when claiming their current iteration KF-21s with no IWBs as "5th-gen fighters" - Now we have this "5th-gen minus" TEDBF from the Jai Hinds.
More like "5th-gen minus cubed".
HAL, a horrorshow of incompetence.
Their helo division is considered their "most successful" one.
Document by an Indian Coast Guard officer.
There have been close to 25 ALH crashes in India since 2005, out of the 340 aircraft produced. Many of these crashes are due to a technical failure.
...
As an OEM of a developmental helicopter, HAL should have carefully documented each and every failure in every system tracing the defect to its origin to fix the basic issue right from the beginning. Unfortunately, their doctrine of getting the helicopters back in the air, Some How In Time, has ensured that no defect is taken seriously enough. We ended up living from accident to accident with no real safety being ensured.
In the case of the November 2005 Jharkhand helicopter crash, investigation revealed many lacunae in the manufacturing and QC processes. Helicopters remained grounded for almost 6 months during this. That helicopter had crashed due to the same reason – the debonded tail rotor blade just like it happened on the Navy helicopter in July!! It is important to note that there is no report of this accident on the DGCA website. Hence there is no public knowledge of why it happened.
Unfortunately, even after the latest accident in Jan 25, the aftermath will likely be some lip service to one-time checks, minor design changes, and to training and maintenance at the user. The OEM would most likely again stress on how robust their design is, and that there is really nothing major to fix. Certificates of acceptability from some foreign design team will be waved at us and life will go on. But not for the unfortunate families, and the squadron.
Their helo division is considered their "most successful" one.
Document by an Indian Coast Guard officer.
There have been close to 25 ALH crashes in India since 2005, out of the 340 aircraft produced. Many of these crashes are due to a technical failure.
...
As an OEM of a developmental helicopter, HAL should have carefully documented each and every failure in every system tracing the defect to its origin to fix the basic issue right from the beginning. Unfortunately, their doctrine of getting the helicopters back in the air, Some How In Time, has ensured that no defect is taken seriously enough. We ended up living from accident to accident with no real safety being ensured.
In the case of the November 2005 Jharkhand helicopter crash, investigation revealed many lacunae in the manufacturing and QC processes. Helicopters remained grounded for almost 6 months during this. That helicopter had crashed due to the same reason – the debonded tail rotor blade just like it happened on the Navy helicopter in July!! It is important to note that there is no report of this accident on the DGCA website. Hence there is no public knowledge of why it happened.
Unfortunately, even after the latest accident in Jan 25, the aftermath will likely be some lip service to one-time checks, minor design changes, and to training and maintenance at the user. The OEM would most likely again stress on how robust their design is, and that there is really nothing major to fix. Certificates of acceptability from some foreign design team will be waved at us and life will go on. But not for the unfortunate families, and the squadron.
On Sep 2, 2024 another ICG ALH, CG 863, had crashed into the sea off Porbandar while on a night medevac mission killing both pilots & one ACM(D). The board of inquiry (BoI) into that accident would perhaps have just concluded before CG 859 from the same squadron became a smouldering wreck at the same home base. ICG has now lost three of the 16 newly-inducted ALH Mk3 MR with a sobering loss of six lives. 835 Squadron (CG) Porbandar has been whittled down to two helicopters, with more than half the squadron’s flight crew wiped out in ALH crashes.
This was a decade ago with the same aircraft. A horrific 4 out of 7 helos exported to Ecuador crashed.
Not much has changed since, it seems. That the Indian Coast Guard have better access to HAL's jerry-rigging "fixes" is probably what kept it from the same catastrophic 57% crash rate.
This Article is From Oct 15, 2015
New Delhi: In a major setback for Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the government of Ecuador which had bought seven Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopters from India has grounded all such remaining choppers in service and has unilaterally ended a contract with the state-owned Indian company.
This decision was taken after four of the seven Indian built choppers crashed. They were supplied to Ecuador between 2009 and 2012.
Not much has changed since, it seems. That the Indian Coast Guard have better access to HAL's jerry-rigging "fixes" is probably what kept it from the same catastrophic 57% crash rate.
This Article is From Oct 15, 2015
After 4 Crashes, Ecuador Grounds Fleet of Indian Dhruv Choppers, Cancels Contract
New Delhi: In a major setback for Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the government of Ecuador which had bought seven Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopters from India has grounded all such remaining choppers in service and has unilaterally ended a contract with the state-owned Indian company.
This decision was taken after four of the seven Indian built choppers crashed. They were supplied to Ecuador between 2009 and 2012.
Lethe
Captain
An interesting and depressing read, thanks. The most alarming aspect is not that there have been many failures or even, with respect to the pilots and crews, loss of life, but that the pattern of these issues and "whack-a-mole" approach to addressing them raises questions of institutional culture and competence in terms of acknowledging, understanding and addressing the root causes of these problems.
It seems to be willful ignorance. Basically ignoring the customer to continue pushing the line that the problem was due to training or maintenance.
Boeing did the same with the 738 Max, they attempted to blame Lion Air on poor training and maintenance when it was the MCAS. They couldn't continue with that lie when the 2nd plane went down in Ethiopia five months later.
With military airfcraft, the safety threshold is probably far lower. This Dhruv/ALH helo had been grounded repeatedly from earlier crashes. The entire fleet had been grounded so far this year.
Unbelievable that seriously deadly issues over a decade ago have not led to a safer aircraft today. When you lose 4 out 7 to an export customer, it should have started ringing bells at the corporate level.