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A good episode. I have flown in these helicopters frequently, particularly Cheetah in Siachen and elsewhere, as a young officer and later as a senior officer. This was of course several years back. Most of those flights in these rickety single engine helicopters were nightmares. On more than one occasion, some survive by the skin of their teeth. If you can dig up the data, you'd be horrified to note the number of young pilots we have lost and keep losing, particularly from Army Aviation (earlier called Air OP) due to tech faults. While our bureaucrats, and l daresay, senior Def brass keep upgrading their official cars to the best available in the market, (the cost comparison between cars and helicopters is partially offset by the huge number of cars in service), we do not seem to be doing enough to replace these ancient helicopters which belong in a museum. Good that you raised this vital issue. As an interim measure, we should immediately buy a few off the shelf from the international market. HAL, despite its packed order book, does not inspire confidence. Best regards Maj Gen S Pachory VSM (Retd)

Procurement is a huge mess in our Armed Forces. Armed Forces places few orders and expects companies to maintain production lines. You can't do both.

SG Tumakuru Helicopter Facility has a current capacity of 30 choppers annually, but can be upgraded to 60-90 a year if orders are placed. HAL CMD has already stated, they're looking at increasing production to 90/year, with 25 a year capacity for LCH Prachand orders alone(156 expected).

Its a great time to spinoff the helicopter division as a separate company and allow it to raise money to build factories to build helicopters.That would lead to increased efficiency and speed of delivery.

Indian defense procurement is like preparing bhel. You add a little of everything. Which is why it is very hard to take advantage of economy of scale, and achieve compatibility of hardware and software with our security partners. It makes no sense to purchase defense equipment from Russia, and then go on to partner with US and its allies! US and NATO have a completely different standard that is simply not compatible with Russian counterparts.

That is why I want to see the young indians at forefront of innovation rather slogging off behind computers in service sector what Narayana Murthy is recommending and quality of research paper of china is improving

Actually sir, while the lack of modernisation is true but it is also true that real money has started flowing in armed forces only in the last decade. We are seeing very rapid modernisation beginning with Air force heavy and medium lifters followed by MIG repacement. In helicopter we have a versatile platform like Dhruv but at the end resources are finite and in many ways it's a legacy challenge for us.

Indian Army to change main assault Rifle after 28 years, Navy to change its Air fleet after 25 years, Air force got 1st new aircraft after 20 years, even basic like boot , helmet , bullet proof jackets were imported, Scorpene deals with no progress for 8 years, now completed, Tejas with no or little progress seen flying after 20 years, Indigenous aircraft carrier after decades.........endless list ---all changes came after 2014 ------where there is a will there is a way

Sharmila Tagore's grand-daughter Sara Ali Khan can be the chief guest for the proposed 60th anniversary. This episode should make us all introspect.

Again a great episode Shekhar sir...

Typical Indian bureaucracy trying to push files under the table - for the simple reason that post retirement they don’t receive the midnight knock on their door by agencies !

Soldier win battle, logistics win war.

In a high tech manufacturing era if private sector is also given the oppurtunity these delays in making armed forces equipments can be made faster..

Mr Gupta can spin ars of 25 mins whose actual content will be 5 mins. he is an excellent story teller

Mr Gupta extremely thankful to you for highlighting this thing and talking about it. Dire condition of fleet and every other day there is a crash!

Grateful for your lucid explanation on this vital topic. The delays are attributable to many cogs in the system...armed forces being one, the budget..you mentioned, bureaucracy, years of non development of pvt sector Defence production. And now we have half literates as opposition who keep harping against pvt sector involvement in Defence production. Would love to hear a candid CTC on such people who aspire to hold bigger positions of authority without a speck of comprehension of geopolitics, national security et al.

The use of attacking Helicopters on Battlefields has come down after the development of Man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS or MPADS) are portable surface-to-air missiles. The 21st century is an era of UAVs. Helicopters can be used only for rescue operations and for supplying materials to the troops at high altitudes during peacetime. It is unsafe to use during mountain warfare. Defence forces and DRDO are well aware of all these disadvantages.

Indian armed forces have been unimaginative, not on tows and almost callous. Kargil showed high altitude helicopters lacunae. Balakot showed BVR missiles too short in range. This is in spite of superiority of Air to air missiles in Kargil, which was lost. Infantry has body armor and good helmets only now. Soldiers deserve scopes and night vision on rifles, still missing. LCH does not have long range air to air missiles and anti tank missiles. Navy does not have heavy torpedoes and 150 MM big guns. SU 30 does not have AESA radars. Most of the aircraft’s are museum pieces. The story is so bad, we should fire all decision makers in the military and defense ministry. But do we have guts? NO. Do we lack imagination, yes of course. Very sad story indeed. 🥲🥲🥲

Hi sir, a great episode. But the videos are not getting added to the playlist. Is this an error?

One of the part you missed out is recruitment and training. It is not just Indian politics, business, cinema are plagued with dynastic nepotism, Indian military, particularly officer corps, pilots are fully nepotism. Accidents happens in all military but the rate and number of incidents in indian aircraft are unbelievable amounts. Real talents are not welcomed but Inept recruitment, nepotism, memorizing some formulas are the priorities I'm indian military pilot recruitment. Any rukie pilot wouldn't fly in to bad mountain weather, yet the so called experienced pilot crying chief of defense staff flew into Ooty mountain and tried to land inside a forest. The nepotism culture is preventing indian advancement in every field.

Very apt and much needed analysis . These videos should be tagged to PMO and the defence ministry. We shouldn't be losing our forces by operating such dated systems. Hope our politicians take note and act on this 😢

Sir very Important Topic. Thank you so much sir.

One of the best episodes by far, this is what real journalism is supposed to be, the one that focuses on national interest!

To ramp up production. HAL could out source the production of major components like helicopter fuselage production to Tata Advanced Systems Ltd which already makes fuselage for Sirkosky S-92. HAL can then act as system integrator with Final Assembly Line for LUH , LCH and so on.

Thank you sir,I gain my knowledge

Dear SG, thanks so much for flagging this critical issue up. The funny & sorry part of this is that every stakeholder is aware of & undertands the necessity & urgency of the situation and still, we are unable to break out from the shackles of indecision, mediocrity & 'chalta hai' attitudes. Being optimistic about our indegenous capabilities is great, as long as we put strict timelines to our optimism... Plan Bs have to kick in whenever timelines are violated, rather than perpetuating this optimism that someday, we shall have an indegenous top-of-the-line fighting machine rolling out of HAL stables (given time, it may...but we can't compromise the efficiency of our forces and lives of our soldiers and consequently, the most ntegrity of this country, on a tenuous thread of hope forever). Yes...defence of our nation is a costly business. If we keep feeling bad about spending for our security and end up compromising on the same, I'm afraid we'll cross the tipping point soon...god forbid. Sensitising, reminding and sometimes scandalising to jolt the decision makers regularly is the only way to cure this dangerous complacency in the defence ministry...Keep at it, SG!! Hrt job!!

Dear SG, the production capacity is designed based on the demand. If our forces place order HAL can increase the production capacity. As of now we can't simply increase the production capacity. Production capacity will be in tandem with the order book.

Why doesn't HAL give their design to multiple pvt companies and produce parts and be just an pure integrator instead of full fledged manufacturer

Thank You Sir for this vlog 🫡

Can't escape the evening in Paris reference whenever Shekhar Gupta talks about Cheetah/Chetak helicopters 😂

This is why we need private companies in development and manufacturing of defence equipments. HAL cannot alone work. Not to mention its highly inefficient too.

Can't agree more with the comparision to the medical process. Indian armed forces are lagging behind. Even on basics like rifles for infantry. Low number of Rafales for the IAF and even the IN is suffering from low number of vessels and lower number of missles per ship compared to similar navies.

Im not able to find anything on luya group based in kanpur for joint venture of drones

Hi Shekarji, Raj here from a far away planet. 20 years have been noticing, no mainstream rich ultrarich News Channels, newspapers, Mazgines politicians owned TV channels speak about Ex-Gratia settlements for various segments of accidents, yet the politically owned govt bodies or departments holds or keeps ex-gratia settlements funds in a very large numbers at both state and central for various accidental and natural disasters events. Now, if the total cost of ex-gratia as compensation are kept on hold, for events to happen, then release funds as compensation, where is the upgrade plan and implementation.

Don't fix it if aren't broken. These equipment have a high capital cost and with such a large army of 1.4 million men and equally large number of retired personnel most of the budget goes in sustaining the opex. With Agniveer and other programs the Defense is trying to reduce its manpower footprint, but it will take time to switch gears for such a large force.

Do a cut the clutter on Mahua Moitra's expulsion from Parliament

Can they manufacture LUH through a private company using an SPV model? They can actually sign ToT with multiple private companies. That would boost the overall aerospace and defense sector. Private companies can also do the export orders which will subsidize the domestic market

Please charge me more, but change the Franklin Templeton Ad.

For now, Logistics can be overcome with land based transports. Attack role choppers needed for the current time. And for areas where land based ones cant go, we need limited orders of LUH.

Proper Journalism👏👏🙌

HAL has a Joint Venture with a Canadian company to train helicopter pilots by simulation including combat. Due to apathy and hostile attitude of the Canadian partners the project is suffering and remains under utilised. A story you can cover to draw attention of powers that matter

Does anyone know the 24 weapons systems?

It is not the age, the USAF is flying b-52 and kc-135 for 7 decades and some C-47 for almost 8 decades

Hindustan Rotorcrafts Limited. That's the solution. From what I understand, warplanes and rotorcraft have different design requirements and very different supply chains. In an aeronautics company, like Boeing and Airbus, helos are a different division. But in India's sarkari babu-neta culture, helos need to be a completely different company with executive responsibility for full life cycle of rotorcraft.

Indian planners messed it up delaying Ka 226T deal. Now we should order at least 100 ka 226T at fly away condition and brought some more Chinook while HAL should be ordered for 300 LUH.

India might possibly have the most corrupt defense procurement in the world - Artillery stuck with no movement in ATAGS, Arjun Tank development goals kept changing, Tejas procurement happened after a lot of pressure. All this would be fine but our security environment is rapidly deteriorating and in some ways current times looks like prelude to WW3. Looks like there is no way out.

Question is not just how to meet imargency requirements,but how all needs slowly turns into urgent necessity. Why not act in a planned manner, why indigenous products get exclusive requirements, why specific requirements like autopilot not planned to induct in block/phased upgrades?

Open atleast one military manufacturing complex in every district in India with help of state govts., Central govt, and private companies.

What’s happening w/ the Apaches ? They are built in my hometown

Modi is the greatest. He will glorify Bharat with the biggest & best equipment. In fact he already has it all. Will announce it in his next Mann ki Barat.

Means: When an accident occurs, the system immediately, releases ex-gratia compensation settlements towards a accident, while the system never improves since 1947-2023, at all states?

Why can't they make more factories?

LUH seems to have been rejected on technical parameters. Tumkur Helicopter Facility may never be used.

How unsmart is HAL, that they didn't think of an auto-pilot?

2:39 I laughed way too hard at this!

Hey SG, Great topic and excellent explanation. Feels like you know our armed forces through and through. Also pertinent topic related to forces is subject of “Short Service Commission” Officers especially of Army, we don’t have proper exit procedures for these officers after their initial terms of engagement, they are not provided with pension or NPS contribution and transparency in awarding PC is non existent. We have had great officers from this entry and they are passionate about their jobs, it’s required to be highlighted. In last four years or so many officers are being released by Army. You have lot of contacts with army top brass, please take into account views of junior officers. - Harish

India should issue more student visas to Iranian students. Iranian science and technology is highly underrated, especially in defense.

We talk about MiG 21 fighters crashing. How many of our helicopters have crashed in Siachen? There don't seem to be issues with the performance of the Cheetah and the Chetak helicopters till date. We don't know how the LUH will perform, but still, efforts are being made to replace the old helicopters with them, because we can't acquire Russian light helicopters due to the war in Ukraine.

Only 1.4 lack cr is year- marked for capital expendirure though more than 5 lacks cr is the defence budget. One of the many criteria is one post one pension.

What about LCH ?

resources are finite. And the finite resources are wasted on costliest stuff like rafales, bullet trains, parliament offices, statues.

There are media reports that Orlan drone sends targets to the Lancet loitering munition drone, there are not many reports on drone and helicopter coordination that I could see.

Please elaborate what happened with GE 404 engine, why it is delayed why Korean order is not delay only Indian order is getting delayed

We cant make it ourselves and we have placed banned them to import. 😏

Mr Gupta left out a key reason behind lack of modernisation of defence forces which is long duration of lack of political Intent and high corruption. Lack of resources is not the main problem.

The golden standard/ day will be when HAL gets competition from a private player. That will be a big thing. The 10 years period will go down to 3.

In terms of performance of defence production items, we probably the worst ! 2 Tejas a month ? 😮

Make in India is the best option. If we have blue prints and progress while series production always is the best way to improve. Maruti cars is the best example. There are few companies around the world that have the depth on engineering skills HAL has. It keeps the Air Force flying. This current government has its priorities correct and in the years to come Indian defence production will be a strength and force multiplier. In many cases it was vested interests that have derailed and curtailed growth of the Defence manufacturing. PM Modi must be hailed as the leader that cut through the noise and motored make in india for defence. These are not the best in class platforms but they are the best we can do. The 1st Dhruv helicopter and the ones rolling out now there is a huge improvement and difference in the makeup. You will have a supply of around 130 per annum helicopters in India in the coming years and 30 LCA per annum. 600 LCA will overwhelm any force which I feel we will need to get by that time you will have upgrades. Indian doctrine has always been small agile on LCA has that and the Prachand and Dhruv match up to all in its class. Look out for the heavy lift helicopters after LUH is in production. The new stealth ones are coming too. Salute the leadership to change things and the mind sets.

Now IAS, Jury advocates have ignored this system rather to improve the system by allocating funds to collages to MSMEs, while political parties have a Gala time, with party workers, media coverages creating a scene of compensation.

After this video HAL share price increased...do media journalists also get paid by shares like influencers?

Stopgap orders can be made, to take LUH without autopilot rn and take the autopilot version as it gets ready, similar to tejas mk1 and mk1a

Govt should employ people who are not getting govt jobs, in such defence manufacturing and expand capacity.

The Armed Forces are also cunning in the Sense that They order Very Little especially from Private Corps and ask them with Infinite extras At the same Time keeping Costs low(Ex: Kalyani M4, Tata Kestrel, Mahindra ASLV, etc) nothing of such ever Happens, Coz You have to Order in A Huge Bulk to keep costs low and Do not use a Dozen different National Systems

Why this situation? Why our government didn't act timely? In next videos please throw some light on this.

NDA has also been like UPA they have no ideas for the IAF no fighter planes no drones no helicopters purchased

Very good episode. Indian government should probably consider getting the LUH manufactured outside India. Good old subcontracting. These are logistics helicopters. No big defence secrets are going to be revealed.

Hal has made a whole separate factory in tumkur only for helicopters of lch , luh , imrh & dhruv class , it is just that army is not placing orders , & undergoing trials after trails of simple things

Pranam sir.

The US still uses B-52 bombers, first induced in 1952. I think it would be nice if you also compared which other major powers continue to use so called "legacy" systems and in what capacity.

9:47 Sekarji thanks for keeping tab on moniting the defence capabilities and their important projects. Without this we cannot be independent in the world political scenario and we will be overrun

Can you please do a similar video for fighter jets. With the way things are going pakistan will be inducting turkish TFX 5th gen fighter and we will br flying limited rafael in front of it.

In H’Bad a DRDO factory has been in operation for the last 40 yrs. This factory was designed by young IIT grads when there were only 5 IITs. This factory produces special high temperature alloys needed to build Jet and Rocket engines. But the Jet Engines which were to use these materials have been a FAILURE. The Engines ( like the Kaveri for the LCA Tejas ) designed by another section of DRDO ( it’s GTRE ) Cabot produce the designed thrust so India has to import GE Engines from the US to power the Tejas ( which in itself is crippled by poor aerodynamic design, consequently uncompetitive to the PAFs 40 yr old F - 16s ). The root cause of India’s perpetual problems in technology, especially Defense is in the poor quality of manpower, both at Delhi Ministries in the North and the R&D plus production units clustered in the South and staffed mostly by third rate graduates from Degree Mills in the South. This North - South Axis of Incompetence & Greed that has taken over India is what has held it back since Independence and made it fall so far behind China in just 30 years ( from near parity in 1990 to GDP now only one fifth ! ). The Delhi - Bengaluru Axis of incompetence must be replaced by the best trained at new focused interdisciplinary Defense oriented programs at the 5 original IITs plus IISc. They should have a broad scope starting from Strategy & Planning to testing of finished products

Is this Auto pilot requirement not told earlier?

We need to give each branch of the armed forces one-time $100 billion modernisation fund to be used only for strategic acquisitions. This should be seperate from the normal budget to bring our equipment to a decent standard.

It takes time to develop the procurement process, operational up gradation will take time. This question must be asked to governments before 2014. There is no magic wand to upgrade the trio forces in one go and the paramilitary forces too. Also the police reforms still need to be implemented, lot of rework needs to be done. I hope the India brigade is listening to these issues.

with all due respect Shekhar saab please also see that if indian helicopter is to be purchased by our armed forces then please include monopoly factor of HAL.Why private sector has not entered into this area of manufacturing ,please make a video and enlighten us saab. I think that our defence manucturing industry primarily being PSUs never thought of having VERTICALS in this area?In olden days if you wanted to buy a car then its either Premier padmini or Ambasador.What happened to them when LPG policy was brought in? This is high time that the Govt.Catalyses the formation of INDIAN MILITARY COMPLEX. Its all engineering machines.Are govt.Jobs attracting the Best of our Engineers?I don't think so.Nowhere in the world is the Govt. anywhere near to pay packages offered by private sector.Hence our Govt.should act as a catalyst to Indian Military Complex.Time has come for it.Right now what is happening is outsourcing the manufacturing.That's all. Military Technology Verticals.We need to grow and finially have our own Design Table of World Standard.Thank you the wonderfull videos You make Shekhar saab.

Instead of wasting money on vanity projects, the central government could have eased the pressure on the armed forces, or have expanded the health-care and educational facilities available to poorer citizens.

This shows that either the machines are goid at better price. The other thought can be we didn't change when we wanted to change.

Why cannot HAL let the logistics helicopter get produced on license basis by Private Enterprises!

Privatize with strict regulations. There is no other solution.

I believe that India should not buy from US as they can stop repairs or put conditions based on national or international politics.

Why doesn't HAL outsource products

The Mi-4 wasn't anything unique in design, many western designs of those times shared the same configuration.

Is it acceptable to present these details that are in the realm of defence of the country?

HAL is doing best of resources

Aérospatiale Alouette III is good helicopter in fact c130 is older than it. For SAR cheetah or cheetal are use which has no equivalent in the world

SG has a weakness to invoke Bollywood and Cricket analogies 👍

India should reduce its expenses on salary and pension ( for defense forces) and should invest in wepons/machine's. Defense Forces shouldn't be considered solely as a source of employment😢😢😢😢

Hal is biggest importer aircraft parts and does a screwdriver job... engines, flight control system, etc etc.. our defence procurement is man-made beautiful mess.. create artificial supply/production crunch and bottleneck.. create technical requirements extremely high.. don't open the pvt sector in defence production.. create complex and delayed purchase process..then create urgent ..emergency war requirements.. vola order/import at double the price... perfect recipe for making some .. unfortunately we can't design manufacture a world class decent assault rifle or handgun pistol and here we are talking about helicopters, drones..aircraft. No country in this world has become a military power by importing equipment... Absolutely not one country.