India, which flies Chinook CH-47 helicopters, seeks details after US grounds its entire fleet

India on Wednesday (31) sought details over the grounding of the entire fleet of the US Army's Chinook CH-47 helicopters over the danger of engine fires.

Officials of the Indian government said the Chinook helicopters in the US Army were still in operation and New Delhi wanted to know the details about the reason for which the entire fleet was grounded in the US.

The South Asian power has around 15 Chinook CH-47 helicopters, sources in the government said.

Over the last few years, these helicopters have become one of the Indian Army's major military hardware for conducting airlift missions in places such as Ladakh and Siachen to assist troops deployed in those locations.

The Chinook helicopters were acquired from the US in 2015 under a deal worth million and inducted into service in 2019, Boeing carried out the delivery of the helicopters which was completed in 2020.

The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story, said Washington took such an extreme step out of caution.

“One of the officials said the fires occurred in recent days”, the Journal said. “The US Army Materiel Command grounded the fleet of hundreds of helicopters out of an abundance of caution.”

Officials told the Journal that the US military was aware of the engine fires that took place in the helicopters though no injury or death was caused.

However, they were looking at more than 70 aircraft that were suspected to be connected to the problem, the daily cited the officials as saying.

The grounding of the heavy-lift helicopters could create logistical difficulties for US soldiers, depending on the duration of the order, the Journal said.