Heli - Teli

India’s political and economic capitals now have a new kind of air cover. Under a somewhat hushhush ‘Project Heli-Teli’, the Indian Air Force has deployed a specialized helicopter each at New Delhi and Mumbai to beam “live” the action on the ground during “terror strikes or urban warfare”. Sources said the two Russian-origin Mi-17 1V helicopters are equipped with advanced FLIR (forward- looking infrared) imaging systems and CCD (chargecoupled device) sensors to enable “live streaming video footage” from the scene of an incident to “command and control centres” on the ground. “They are meant for reconnaissance and surveillance duties during crisis situations… like what happened during the 26/11 terror strikes in Mumbai or the Parliament attack in Delhi before that,” said a source. Live aerial feeds will make it possible to launch swift and well-directed counter-measures to threats emerging on the ground. “The aim, as with our radar systems that are geared towards aerial threats, is to reduce the reaction time or shorten the sensor-to-shooter loop,” he said. The Heli-Teli concept is not new. It is used by several police forces around the globe for airborne patrols, traffic and crowd control, car chases and the like. Indian police forces, however, are not as yet equipped with such technology to keep an eye on the cities or towns under their jurisdiction. The Indian Heli-Teli Project, geared towards tackling terror and urban warfare rather than conventional law and order duties, is likely to be extended to other major cities in the future. The force, in fact, is already looking to acquire more imaging systems and sensors that can also be fitted on the smaller Cheetah and Chetak helicopters. The IAF, incidentally, has begun to get deliveries of the 80 new Mi-17 V5 helicopters, which are also weaponized for combat operations, it had ordered from Russia for $1.34 billion in 2008. A follow-on contract for 59 more Mi-17s is now on the anvil. During last year’s Commonwealth Games, the IAF had deployed a couple of Israeli Searcher-II UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) for surveillance over New Delhi. But helicopters equipped with the latest FLIR-CCD sensors and thermal imagers are considered better suited for this role.