IAF’s Chinook flies non-stop from Chandigarh to Jorhat, sets a record in India

A CH-47F (I) Chinook helicopter of the Indian Air Force on Monday set a record by flying the longest, non-stop chopper sortie in India.

With the operation training task requiring it to fly from Chandigarh to Jorhat, officials familiar with the development said. The Boeing-made multi-mission helicopter, used extensively in the Ladakh sector amid the ongoing border row with China, flew a distance of 1,910 km in seven-and-a-half hours.

The sortie was possible because of the capabilities of the Chinook along with operational planning and execution by IAF, a defence spokesperson wrote on Twitter.

“Chinook is a multi role, vertical lift platform, used for transporting men and material. It also plays an important role in Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Operations. Rapid mobility will allow IAF to employ this asset optimally as required,” the spokesperson wrote.

The helicopter used additional fuel tanks for the mission. The IAF variant of the helicopter does not have mid-air refuelling capability.

The Chinook provides the Indian armed forces with strategic airlift capability across the full spectrum of combat and humanitarian missions, the officials said. The chopper’s primary roles include moving artillery, battlefield resupply and transportation of troops.

“The non-stop sortie from Chandigarh to Jorhat proves the range and reach of air power to execute the missions assigned to IAF,” said Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (retd), former additional director general, Centre for Air Power Studies.

In September 2015, India placed a $3.1-billion order for 15 Chinooks and 22 Apache attack helicopters to scale up the air force’s capabilities. All the platforms have been inducted.

Chinook helicopters can carry the army’s new M777 ultra-light howitzers as under-slung load for swift deployment in high-altitude areas. India ordered 145 howitzers from the US for $750 million in November 2016. Apart from M777s, the army has also deployed the K9 Vajra-T self-propelled artillery guns and the 155 mm FH 77 BO2 guns (better known as Bofors) in the Ladakh sector.

The US was India’s third-biggest supplier of arms, accounting for 12% of the country’s imports in the last five years, after Russia (46%) and France (27%), according to a report released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) last month.