MAKE IN INDIA Proposition INDIGENOUS HELICOPTER BY PRIVATE SECTOR

In an honest spirit of 'Aatma Nirbhar Bharat', visible disposition of Indian helicopter industry oriented around DPSUS triggers subject genesis. Realised levels of R&D by DPSUs in helicopter design, development & manufacture are undoubtedly positive takeaways.

However, placing a competitive product in top-of-the-line world market remains to be an Indian ambition since trailing about 35-40 years from contemporary capabilities. Proposition here converges to systematically fielding helicopter(s) in world market built through an indigenous ecosystem. Necessity of a competent ecosystem to produce a commercially viable competitive product in aggressive international competition is the pivotal motive of this argument.

Helicopters are ranked on safety, role effectiveness, reliability, availability, postsales support and operating costs. Performance attributes translate into role effectiveness while reliability, availability and operating costs are primarily elements of maintenance domain. These maintenance domain elements have been a bane for prevalent indigenous helicopter fleet. Evident from minimal presence of indigenous helicopters with civil operators, privately owned helicopter operators passively reflect litmus test results of this offering. Inflating numbers through counting platforms of armed forces would naturally be unreasonable. Operation of helicopters without favourable attributes surrounding aforesaid elements is therefore a non-starter.