ISLAMABAD – The Indian Air Force is preparing to induct US-made ApacheAH-64E attack helicopters, with the first batch of four choppers arrivingin the country in July, two IAF officials said on condition of anonymity onThursday.
India had inked a $ 1.1-billion deal with the US defence giant Boeing, inSeptember 2015 for 22 Apaches. The first batch of choppers will be based atthe Pathankot air base near borders with Pakistan, said one of theofficials cited above.
The choppers will be split into two squadrons, with the second one to bebased in Jorhat, the country’s east, he said.
The IAF currently operates Soviet-origin Mi-25 and Mi-35 helicoptergunships. Boeing is likely to deliver all the 22 helicopters through 2020,the second official said.
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“With its mast mounted Longbow millimetric wave radar, the Apache will openup the tactical battlefield like never before.
Besides the TOW (tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided) anti-tankmissiles that it carries, its ability to transmit and receive thebattlefield picture (from and to other weapon systems) through data-linkmake it a very lethal acquisition,” said Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur(retd), additional DG, Centre for Air Power Studies.
