HAL In A Banana Boat

The photo on the left shows the HAL Ecuador team taking a ride on a banana boat at the Salinas Beach. This was taken about five months ago. The men were enjoying a well-deserved break from gruelling weeks overseeing the smooth induction of the ALH Dhruvs into Ecuadorian Air Force service. Little could they have known that HAL’s management, sitting pretty in Bangalore, has now left them with little much else to do now. This photograph struck me as so typical of the situation right now. The men in the photograph, especially team leader R Narayanan (second from left) are the guys facing all the heat now.

Incidentally, it has emerged that a powerful “anti-Dhruv” lobby within HAL (yes, you read that correctly) is busy smacking its lips. Details shortly.

7 thoughts on “HAL In A Banana Boat”

  1. An "anti-Dhruv lobby" within HAL. That's high treason. Shiv, please spare no efforts to provide at a few names. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if the trail led right to the Indian PMO!

  2. There's a school of thought that the Ecuadorian fiasco is being used by persons very high up in the Indian establishment to sink the Dhruv project. The identity of the replacement craft isn't difficult to guess.

    Strange and tragic, but not entirely unexpected given recent trends in India. OTOH, check pilots from one of the worlds premier air forces which is an overseas user of the Dhruv find it a "first-rate machine". Shiv, please get some names, the sooner the better. This isn't an isolated incident, and thats for sure!

  3. I find it really speculative about Hal High ups trying to sabotage Dhruv. Unless MOD is flexing its influence to cut short Hal's growth due to lobbying by foreign arms manufacturers.Helicopter arm of Hal is matured and there is alot of indigenous heli projects emerging. There is serious concern that if Hal succeeds in rolling out different classes of helis, they can seriously challenge the present big boys in terms of price and technolgy. The game has begun and Hal has to response well to the evolving dirty tricks that will be employed by its competitors from USA/Europe and China which is becoming strongly entrenched in Equador through its financial baiting for oil and defence deals.

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