Combat capability of the Naval Air Arm

By Vice Adm (Retd) GM Hiranandani

Issue Book Excerpt: Transition to Guardianship: The Indian Navy 1991-2000 | Date : 14 Feb , 2012

Similarly, a naval air station was commissioned at Visakhapatnam as INS Dega in 21 October 1991.

The fifth naval air station, on the east coast of India, was commissioned in 1992 as INS Rajali at Arakkonam in Tamilnadu.

Air Arm Logistics

Spares Procurement

In the late 90s, an analysis of the pattern of spares procurement during the decade, revealed a compliance rate of about 58% for Sea Harriers. In contrast for Russian birds it was 25% for ILs and 45% for TUs and for rotary wing aircraft between 26–38%.

Coupled with the above two aspects were factors like slow turnaround of rotables that were offloaded for repairs on indigenous and foreign repair agencies, long lead time in provisioning of spares and increasingly higher rate of component failures due to equipment obsolescence.

The low compliance rate on the spares front for Russian aircraft was attributable to factors like limited inventory on offer from RVZ, errors induced in demands during transliteration of part numbers first at the unit level and later at NHQ when indenting for the items and lastly difficulties faced by RVZ in expanding vendor base.

Air Stores Management

In 1996, the College of Defence Management (CDM) was tasked by FONA to carry out a project study on the management of air stores and its possible merger with the ILMS. CDM recommended the following:-

Segregation of air stores.
Computerisation of air logistics within three years.

The proposal was aimed at providing a terminal to all users of aircraft spares, repair of components and management of information involved with technical support to aviation. Seven software firms were identified to undertake a preliminary study to estimate the budgetary and the overall requirements. The proposed project was estimated to cost Rs 5 crores and was scheduled for completion by end 1998.

Spares Management Action Plan

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The action plan evolved to address various issues included fine tuning of the AOG channel, cash and carry purchase of intensive flying items, and a monitoring-cum-control system for rotables surveyed by units to augment the repair load on agencies. The Integrated Air Logistics Management system ILMS (Air), a study commissioned in early 2000, gave the much-needed impetus to the ongoing process.

Western/Indigenous Aircraft

Procurement through ARD, the only logistics lifeline, commenced in 1995–96. The spares availability position had improved by 2000.

Due to the disadvantages/limitations of piston engines of the Islander aircraft, they were being replaced by Turbo Prop Allison engines.

Shortage of ASE and GSE, particularly in respect of Sea Harriers and Chetak aircraft, had imposed setbacks on the production of aircraft from the second line. A dedicated drive was initiated to address this problem in its entirety.

Eastern Origin Aircraft

In the case of Russian acquisitions, whilst the earlier inductions had reliably stabilised in their operation and maintenance cycles, the effect of material related aspects had been most pronounced on the ILs.

The slow process of stabilisation of the CIS placed further hurdles in efforts to better exploit the mammoth TU aircraft. Poor standards of quality control during overhaul of aircraft at Russia were a phenomenon causing much concern.

Towards the end of the decade revised LPO contract was signed with M/s RVZ. Also after interaction with Air Force, alternate sources have been initiated to improve availability of spares.

Effect of US Sanctions. The adverse effect of US sanctions on various aviation projects was severe and impacted on their modernisation/maintenance schedule:-

Sea Kings —Severely affected
Sea Harriers —JPT/RPM Gauges
Dorniers —Engines Repair/Overhaul held up
Chukars —No further support

Aircraft Refit, Maintenance and Modernisation Infrastructure

As part of Project Ashok, a Hydraulic facility was commissioned in Feb 1998, at NAY, Kochi under which 45 Rotables were serviced/repaired with a saving of £1.282 Million (Rs 9 Crores).

An Ejection Seat Facility was commissioned in Oct 1997 under which twelve components were serviced/repaired saving of £25,000.00 (Rs 17.50 Lakhs)

Infrastructure Projects

The major infrastructure projects on the anvil in the later half of the decade were as follows :

The Sea Harrier third and fourth line facilities for the repair and overhaul of aircraft, engines and their components and the engine test bed were to be set up at Kochi at a cost of Rs 330 crores by 2001.
Contract for re-engining six Islanders was signed with M/s Britten Norman and the first aircraft was expected to be completed by end 1996.
The SHR simulator update contract was awarded to M/s Macmet and was planned to be made operational in 1997.

Engine Conversion for INAS 550

Due to the disadvantages/limitations of piston engines of the Islander aircraft, they were being replaced by Turbo Prop Allison engines. The Naval Aircraft Yard, Kochi undertook the task of conversion in April 1996 and the first Turbo Prop Islander aircraft was handed over to INAS 550 on Sept 17, 1996.

Retrospect. In retrospect, the areas of concern in naval aviation during this period were as follows :-

Poor serviceability of Seakings, Harriers and LRMPs.
Spares, that were a problem even before the Pokhran related sanctions came into effect.
Russian sourcing.
ASE/GSE for ship borne flights was a concern because the pool was not increasing. Equipment was regularly transferred from one flight to another in a “nomadic migration” pattern.
The year 1996 registered an upward trend from the dip, which was beginning to take effect due to the infamous FFE crunch and the drying up of supplies from the erstwhile USSR in the early nineties.
By 1997, naval aviation had stabilised and steadily grown away from the twin trauma of the Russian debacle and the foreign exchange crunch.
Spares shortages, long lead times and inadequate test benches had resulted in low availability of TUs. Lack of quality control during overhauls in Russia added to our concern.
The emergency procurement by Logdels had served only as a short-term measure. Low inventory with RVZ, few vendors and low rate of turn around of items from Russia resulted in low ARD satisfaction levels.
The adoption of ILMS for air stores gave impetus to the ongoing corrective process.
The effect of recommencement of ARDs in 1995–97, which had been suspended during 1989–95, was expected to yield positive results by the late 90s.

The following new inductions were planned.:-