Will the Chile deal work out for Dhruv?

The online business magazine domain-B reports that HAL has received an RfP from the Chilean government for the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv, and will respond to it in June, though the report has some errors. The proposed sale of Dhruvs to Santiago was one of the first reports I wrote up when I joined The Indian Express in August 2004, and it was a deal that was almost certain to go through in the circumstances. In October 2004, then Air chief S Krishaswamy visited Chile (and then HAL’s director design & development, Ashok Baweja — now chairman) along with pilots from the Sarang helicopter display team, where they made a huge demonstration routine over a week. Since the beginning of the Chilean requirement in 2003, the Dhruv was pitted against the Bell-430 and Eurocopter EC-145, both formidable competitors with vastly greater export experience. But after the demo flights in October 2004, it was almost certain that the Chileans wanted the Dhruv, not just for its far lower ownership cost package, but also because it was a darn good machine entirely worthy of Chile’s needs and then some.

But a month later, in November 2004, one of the Dhruvs sold to the Royal Nepal Army (RNA), had a severe hard-landing, sparking off a minor diplomatic row. One of the pilots sustained minor injuries, while the Dhruv’s undercarriage was severely damaged and landing gear assemblies fully hit. I spoke to one of the Sarang pilots who had been to Chile the previous month, and who was now in Bangalore — he said at the time that the Nepal accident had been identified as having been caused by a faulty spider actuator assembly, or the tail rotor pitch control system which collapsed into the tail-rotor, thereby sending the chopper into an uncontrolled spin. The accident wasn’t much, but it had huge implications for HAL. Faulty critical components on a machine that it had pegged as it’s most promising export possibility.

In January 2005, the Chilean President Ricardo Lagos was given a demonstration by the Sarangs in Bangalore. On October 25 2005, Pranab Mukherjee visited Chile. His visit was widely reported as the clincher for the Dhruv deal, but the Chileans had just received yet another entrant who was interested in demonstrating — the Agusta A109, so no deal was signed, but an assurance was given to Mukherjee that the Dhruv was still on top of their list. The Chilean Air Force chief at the time also told the Indian delegation that the hard-landing in Nepal wasn’t a cause for too much concern, since it actually proved the crash-worthiness of the airframe.

A month later, in a steep deja vu, a Dhruv crashed in Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh on November 25, though none of the eight people in the chopper was seriously injured. The chopper was being transferred to the Jharkhand state administration, which had ordered the helicopter 18 months previously for VIP transport roles. But this time, Chile was not very forthcoming about affirming the Dhruv’s crashworthiness. A small HAL team visited Chile in early January to explain to the Chilean government the details of the crash, and why it really proved that the Dhruv airframe was crash-proof. But back home, the country’s Dhruv fleet, in its entirety, had been grounded. Defective “hardeners” used in a particular batch of tail rotor assemblies and blades proved too much of a risk to allow any more flying, so for over a month, the Dhruvs in the armed forces, did not fly and each unit was individually inspected.

The Dhruv’s run of bad luck couldn’t have gotten worse. The negative publicity for the Indian helicopter had all the foreign journals flocking in to feed on the carcass. Fortunately, the Chileans sobered up and began discussions again, sometime around July 2006, with the visit of one of their armed forces chiefs. By this time, interest in the Dhruv had spread a little more. By December 2006, there were inquiries from Bolivia, Peru, Mauritius, Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia. These were countries that had heard about Chile’s helicopter competition, and saw that the far cheaper Dhruv was competing formidably against the Eurocopters and the Bells of the world. Things started looking up once again.

Then, on February 2, disaster struck again. Days ahead of the Aero India 2007 defence show at Yelahanka, a Sarang aerobatic team Dhruv crashed near the runway, tragically killing one of its pilots Sqn Ldr Priye Sharma and severely injuring the other, Wg Cdr Vikas Jetley. When I took a flight in the F/A-18 Super Hornet, I remember spotting the brilliantly coloured red and gold wreckage from the air as we did a series of low passes of the airfield.

Crashes may not severely affect export negotiations (they, of course, do in some measure), but HAL receiving the RfP for 12-14 helicopters and being in a strong position to respond next month is heartening news. Two choppers in Nepal and one “on lease” to Israel — that’s the tally so far, and it’s not enviable to say the least. Hopefully it won’t be long before we see a few Dhruvs in foreign livery. Everything else will follow. HAL has decided that all future production of Dhruvs will be fitted with Israeli avionics under the IAI-HAL marketing tie-up, but again, hopefully, it won’t be long before DARE and the others get around to making the Dhruv a fully Indian helicopter with Indian EW, all weather day-and-night vision system, COMM and HUDs. Because that’s what it should be.

8 thoughts on “Will the Chile deal work out for Dhruv?”

  1. padma: it was a name i first came up with for a political cartoon strip i was working on. but that evolved differently. so i decided to name this blog livefist when i started it. two words i put together during a day scrawl in wales!

  2. Nice one shiv..i think Dhruv will make it. if not, alteast it will make hard for the close-in competitor.

  3. Thanks Shiv for the report…your attempt to kill the Dhruv export couldnt be clearer. The EF/ Swedes maintain a discreet silence over teething troubles…you otoh seek to give them as much publicity as possible..slimeball.

  4. [email protected]: it certainly will make it hard. i spoke to someone from a chilean business delegation that had come for some CII meeting recently in delhi. he happened to work for an aerospace firm that was looking to get some outsourcing contracts for the helicopter tender. he said he’d visited and watched most of the trials, and that there was no question that the ALH performed much better than the bell and the ec-145. let’s hope the chilean govt thought so too!

  5. yes shiv..there is going to be no second thoughts in the selection, if not for some invented reasons and lobby effect :wink:…problem/malfunction happens everywhere in aerospace industry…happened in F-16,F-18,F-22,Su-30 and now Gripen. I dont think that will be major problem in the selection. if there is a breakthrough..then its going to be gala time for our industry.

    Mach ([email protected])

  6. @anon (@4.21 pm),

    I disagree. Most of the information is already in the open, and instead of giving cause for speculation and rumors, it is better to come clean and keep the public informed about the causes for any accidents.

    In the case of the Dhruv, its crashes have been analyzed and all problems have been fixed. If HAL had kept these info about the Tail rotor issues in the bag, the public would not have known about it, and would not realize that the issue had been solved. Instead, the HAL came clean, and in the end, we have a truly wonderful machine, with no issues whatsoever, which can survive crashes from 5000 ft, and perform at altitudes where no one else can.

    Remember, the Indian Armed forces have some of the most gruesome and punishing trials for any system, and Dhruv has passed muster on all of them with flying colors.

    Look at the Gripen. They have had 5 crashes, and all were analyzed and fixed. keeping the people in the loop and informed helps clear issues.

    However, the role of the media in this is no small one. They should be rational and clear, without speculation (as happened at AI-07).

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