One of four Indian Air Force CH-47F(I) Chinook heavy lift helicopters being inducted into service at Air Force Station, Chandigarh on March 25, 2019 | Photo: Indian Air Force
The CH-47F(I) Chinook and AH-64E Apache helicopter fleets of the Indian Air Force (IAF) are expected to receive training simulators and Performance Based Logistics (PBL) contracts for the long-term sustainment of the aircraft.
Managing Director of Boeing Defence India, Surendra Ahuja told media at Aero India 2023 last month that Boeing is in talks with the IAF to provide training simulators for the two types of helicopters. Boeing already provides simulator training for pilots and loadmasters on the C-17 Globemaster III heavy-lift transport aircraft, hosted at a private facility called Flight Simulation Technique Centre (FSTC) in Gurgaon. “The air force is working with us to acquire those similar capabilities for training for their crew for Chinook and Apache, as well,” he said.
According to Ahuja, the simulators will be located at the fleet hubs, with the AH-64E Apache simulator at Pathankot and the CH-47F Chinook simulator at Chandigarh. “They’ll be located within the air stations. Now whether they are owned by Boeing — and we provide training as a service or they are owned by the air force, is a matter of detail, which we’re still working out with the air force. The air force will eventually take a call on whether they want to own the simulator and run it themselves or have us own the simulator and offer them training-as-a-service, based on their usage rate,” explained Ahuja.
Outsourced simulator training is not an uncommon model and it’s how the IAF trains its personnel on the C-17 at FSTC. “Our crew helps the air force train them but the simulator is owned by us and the contract is use-and-pay, effectively. Training as a service,” said Ahuja. Boeing also has a training facility for pilots and observers on the P-8I at INS Rajali at Arakonam and for maintainers at INS Venduruthy in Kochi.
Two of eight Indian Air Force AH-64E Apache attack helicopters being inducted into service at Air Force Station, Pathankot on September 03, 2019 | Photo: Boeing
But with Indian Chinooks and Apaches coming off their warranty period, Boeing is also in talks with the IAF to institute Performance Logistics Contracts (PBLs) for the aircraft.
Under standard clauses in procurement contracts, all platforms fall off warranty two years after induction. And since the two types were inducted in the period between 2019 and 2020, they’ve fallen off warranty.
In such circumstances and without a PBL contract, Ahuja explained, ‘what you do is transactional repair or the provision of transactional spares’. “These are tedious – every spare part is an RFP, so it just takes a lot of time and leads to degradation of availability of platforms,” he said.
India’s C-17 and P-8I aircraft are already on PBL contracts. Performance Based Logistics contracts offer high percentages of guaranteed availability of aircraft to their operators. “We are now working with the air force to put Chinooks and Apaches on a similar Performance Based Logistics contract so that we can look after the availability of the numbers the customer might want. And this is different from transactional purchases of spares and transactional repairs to which the Indian armed forces had been used to, earlier,” said Ahuja.
The PBL contract being considered for the two helicopter types is for a performance period of five years, But Boeing’s teams have already been in place to provide maintenance. “We have a team in Chandigarh that supports Chinooks, we have a team in Pathankot that supports Apache and again a small team in Mohanbari, supporting the Chinooks based there. Most of the people who are based there are local Indian employees and we’re largely harnessing veterans who have recently finished their tenures. Let’s say somebody maintained Chinooks. After he leaves the air force, he works for us and serves the air force in a Boeing badge.”
