The Indian Navy’s combat aviation capability is taking wing. A new flotilla of capital warships is being equipped with new multi-role helicopters that are providing combat capabilities far beyond what has been provided for decades by a handful of Seaking 42B/C multirole helicopters (MRHs) that are currently being eased out of its inventory.

Last week, the navy commissioned a second aviation squadron called the “Ospreys” that will operate a new tranche of Sikorsky MH-60R Romeo helicopters. Designated Indian Naval Air Squadron 335 (INAS 335), the new unit was commissioned into the fleet last week at the navy’s premier aviation base, INS Hansa, in Goa.

“Ospreys” are the second naval squadron to be equipped with the MH-60R Romeo. The first squadron, numbered Indian Naval Air Squadron 334 (INAS 334), has been operating from the naval base at Kochi.

This is a major relief for the navy. Since the turn of the century, a succession of Indian Navy chiefs has publicly lamented the shortage of ship-borne multi-role helicopters as one of the navy’s most worrisome operational shortfalls. Over the years, as the navy’s once formidable fleet of Westland Seaking Mark 42B/C MRHs was whittled away by attrition, helicopter hangars on Indian warships progressively emptied, severely reducing their combat capability.

Capital warships – a category that includes larger combat vessels such as aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates and corvettes – are built with reinforced flight decks and hangars for carrying one or two MRHs when they sail out for operational missions. When fully operational, these MRHs bristle with so many anti-submarine,........

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