India's Exuberant Defence Spending and Seven Major Defence Scandals


Bangalore: When the U.S. President Barack Obama considers a certain helicopter to be expensive, it is a reason enough to avoid such deals by a country which is still fastening its economy compared to the world giants. Barack Obama in 2009 found a variant of the AW-101 helicopters to be too plush to approve its purchase. However, the Indian government had no objection sealing deals for 12 of the expensive AW-101 helicopters, a year later in 2010 for a whopping sum of Rs 3,546 crore, as reported by TNN.

The 12 AW-101 helicopters contracted by India has eight in VVIP configuration and four in non-VVIP in which three have already been trained in the IAF's elite Communication Squadron at the Palam airbase to ferry around the President, PM and other VVIPs. They have been lined up to replace the ageing Russian-origin Mi-8s and Mi-17s which are currently used to fly VVIPs within the country.

The Indian VVIPs have been flying in style with top notch security in expensive new aircraft and helicopters over the last decade. As for the AW-101s they have well-built self-defence systems like chaff and flare dispensers, missile-approach warners and directed infra-red electronic counter-measures. In VVIP configuration only 10 passengers are ferried unlike the usual 40 seaters.

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