The Union home ministry has proposed to develop its own fleet of helicopters and aircraft to provide air support to Central paramilitary forces engaged in anti-Naxal operations. The proposed air wing, which will remain under the Border Security Force, will have a minimum of 20-25 copters and aircraft like MI-17 helicopters, Embraers
and fixed-wing medium lift transport aircraft which will be put at the disposal of the Central paramilitary forces deployed in critical areas like J&K, Naxal-affected states and Northeast. Retired IAF personnel and pilots with certain qualifications will separately be inducted by the BSF for quick movements.
Sources said that a proposal in this regard is being drawn up and once approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security, it will take 2-3 years for the MHA to become self-sufficient on its need for air power. Currently, the BSF air wing and the IAF provides copters and providing logistical support to Central forces deployed across the country. “While the IAF has spelt out its constraints on its ready availability for the Central forces, the air wing of the BSF requires a major overhauling owing to its limited capacity, decade-old copters and acute shortage of pilots,” an official said.
Currently, the BSF has less than a dozen copters deployed across the nine Naxal-affected states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Maharashtra. To meet their demands, four neighbouring states have been asked to share the copters made available to them thereby setting a fixed number of hours of flying for the forces.
With Naxal-affected states raising the pitch for increased air support, the ministry has been making efforts to hire from IAF or Pawan Hans and also asking BSF Air Wing to procure more copters. Most recently, the state governments unanimously demanded that the ministry increase the air support for Central forces to improve troop movement during the operations by joint forces during the CM’s meet on security on February 1.