Is a plane crash in India considered news? But this time is different

According to reports from India Today and Indian TV news channels, a Russian-made Mi-17V5 armed military helicopter crashed in Tamil Nadu, southern India at noon on December 8, 2021.

No one really cared about this matter at first. After all, a plane crash in India is considered news, right?

But this time it was different because Indian Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and his wife were on board the plane. Rawat visited the Defence Services College in Wellington on the 8th to address staff and students. He completed a military course at the Defence Services College in Wellington.

Sources said that the helicopter that Bipin Rawat was riding in was departing from the Sulur Air Force Base in Tamil Nadu and was about to go to the Coonoor area of ​​the state. It is reported that there were 14 family members and close associates on the plane, and the accident may have been caused by the low visibility caused by the heavy fog that was about to rain.

The crash scene was extremely tragic, with the plane torn into pieces and many "charred bodies" at the scene.

It can be clearly seen from the wreckage that this is an Indian Air Force Mi-17V5 helicopter, numbered ZP-5164

This aircraft appears frequently, and you can see the gray paint job of the Indian Air Force. The vast majority of India's helicopters belong to the Air Force, which seems very strange to other countries.

Bipin Rawat, the Indian Chief of Defense Staff, encountered a plane crash while riding a Cheetah helicopter when he was the Army Chief in 2015, but he was not injured. But he was not so lucky this time. The accident rate of Indian aircraft is so high... Even a chief of staff can encounter it twice.

Subsequent reports said that Bipin Rawat did not die on the spot, but was seriously injured with nearly 80% burns on his body. He was in critical condition and was currently receiving treatment at a military hospital in Wellington.

Very tragic, very bad

On the evening of December 8, 2021, Indian officials officially announced that Bipin Rawat had died.

The Indian Air Force's latest statement said that it has been confirmed that General Bipin Rawat, Rawat's wife and 11 other people on board have died in the accident, and one crew member is currently receiving treatment at the Wellington Military Hospital.

The Indian government has ordered an investigation to determine the cause of the accident. A former Mi-17 pilot said, "The main culprit has always been the weather. The weather in the mountains has been bad. Weather may be one factor; another factor may be technical defects."

Indian Chief of Defense Staff Bipin Rawat is the first Chief of Defense Staff of India. This position is a very new position for the Indian Army. On August 15, 2019, Modi announced the establishment of the position of Chief of Defense Staff in his speech on India's Independence Day. Former Indian Army Chief of Staff Rawat was appointed as the first Chief of Defense Staff on December 30, 2019.

Bipin Rawat officially assumed the newly created post of Chief of Defence Staff of India on January 1, 2020. It has been almost two years today.

This position is the highest-ranking officer in the Indian Army and the number one figure in the military. He is also the number one military adviser to Indian Prime Minister Modi and the Minister of Defense. It is equivalent to the Chief of Staff of other countries, such as the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the US Army. In fact, the Indian Army’s reform this time is modeled after the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley is the top figure in the U.S. military, the highest-ranking person in uniform. He is the person who is actually responsible for combat after civilian decisions are made.

Although the position is nominally a senior assistant to the Minister of Defense and has no actual command power, it is responsible for unifying the opinions of the major services and coordinating the operations of the various services. It also controls the financial power of the entire Indian army and is responsible for all military budget allocations. It is currently the actual person in power in the Indian army during the war.

Since the Indian military system has long been modeled after the British, and India did not gain independence through armed struggle, the Indian civilian government not only does not trust the military, but is very defensive, which has led to the Indian government going too far in civilian control of the military, and has always been unwilling to let the military have a "talker". In today's world where joint operations have become a trend and "no joint operations, no operations", the Joint Chief of Staff has become an indispensable position for the military of all countries. However, as a military power, India has never established this position. It only has a Chiefs of Staff Committee of the Three Services, which is composed of the three chiefs of staff of the navy, army and air force. The chiefs of staff of the three services take turns to serve as the chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. However, this committee has not played a basic role in the coordination and coordination of the various services. The reason is that after taking office, the chairman of the committee mostly favors his own service (such as the helicopter issue mentioned above); under the constraints of the three parties, the committee has no real power, and eventually this department has become a decoration.

The Chiefs of Staff of the Indian Navy, Air Force and Army. On the far right is Bipin Rawat, who was also the Chief of Army Staff at the time.

Therefore, although the Indian army is large in scale and has decent weapons, it performs very poorly in joint operations, because the three armed forces are doing their own things, so there are strange things like shooting down their own helicopters.

In February 2019, an Indian Air Force anti-aircraft missile shot down one of its own Mi-17V5s. India did not admit it at the time, saying it was shot down by Pakistan. It was not until October 4 of that year that Indian Air Force General Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria admitted that it was an Indian air defense missile that hit the Indian helicopter, causing a major accident in which six people on board and one person on the ground died. The two relevant personnel will be punished, and they will not make similar mistakes again in the future.

After suffering losses in many conflicts with its neighbors, India has learned from its mistakes and promoted the modernization of the three armed forces, enhanced their joint combat capabilities, and promoted the integration of the three armed forces. The Modi government began to implement military reforms. It decided to establish the position of Chief of Defense Staff, which is also a "handle" for Modi within the military. On the one hand, it promotes military reforms, and on the other hand, it controls the military. As mentioned above, the relationship between the Indian government and the Indian military is delicate.

Bipin Rawat, 58, was born in Uttarakhand. His father was a lieutenant general in the Indian Army. After graduating from military school, Rawat served as a second lieutenant under his father. During the Sino-Indian confrontation in 1987, Rawat was deployed to the front line of the Sino-Indian border to prepare for possible war. In 2015, in retaliation for the ambush of 18 Indian soldiers in western Manipur, Lieutenant General Rawat personally commanded troops to cross the border to attack separatist organizations in Myanmar. After that, Rawat rose rapidly. In 2016, he served as the commander of India's Southern Theater Command and deputy chief of the army staff. At the end of the year, he was promoted to chief of the army staff. In 2019, at the nomination of Prime Minister Modi, Bipin Rawat, then chief of the army staff, became India's first chief of defense staff.

After taking office, he did promote military reforms in India, received a batch of new equipment, and formed a synthetic force. However, since he was from the army, he did not pay much attention to the navy and air force, which caused dissatisfaction among the navy and air force.

On the other hand, Rawat has also made many rude remarks about our country. Not only did he say that China is currently the biggest security threat to India, he also openly clamored to "establish an independent Tibet" as a "buffer state" between India and China.

The person is dead, and I don’t want to gloat over his misfortune, but the vacancy of the Chief of Defense Staff is likely to trigger a new round of game among the three Indian armed forces, and may also determine whether Modi’s military reforms can proceed smoothly in the future. Modi’s previous agricultural reforms have failed, and if the military reforms are unfavorable again…