On the blue-green Mascarene island of Mauritius, Militär Aktuell recently came across a flying surprise: although the island state does not have an army, it maintains five Indian-made Alouette IIIs and was previously believed to operate the oldest examples of this type in the world.
Geologically, the volcanic islands of the Mascarene Islands were never connected to the mainland, which is why an exotic animal world developed there – almost 900 kilometers east of Madagascar and in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Many of the animals hunted mainly by Portuguese and Dutch sailors as welcome fresh meat and provisions (the best-known species is probably the dodo) were wiped out within a very short time, but there are still many species on Mauritius (and the neighboring French overseas department of La Réunion) that are not native elsewhere. The country’s official bodies have probably taken this fact as an example, as they also maintain exotic equipment in the form of police helicopters and coastguard aircraft – albeit with a strong Indian influence.
The island nation, which has been independent of England since 1968, does not have a military, but it does have a police helicopter unit and a coastguard unit under the control of the police high commissioner. Visiting their joint “nest” at Plaisance Airport required an almost two-month “internal” approval phase until the Prime Minister himself finally opened the door to Militär Aktuell. The effort was worth it, as five well-maintained SA.316B Alouette IIIs from the Indian Chetak series, which are very familiar to Austrians, were on display. The men of the squadron, led by Indian officers on a two- to three-year rotation, only retired their oldest helicopter this year after 44 years and were of the opinion that this was the oldest Alouette ever. They were astonished when Militär Aktuell topped this opinion with a reference to Aigen im Ennstal. Of course, the operational area is completely different: while the red-white-red Alouettes are primarily deployed in the mountains, our “Rotor Antipodes” in the Indian Ocean mainly carry out surveillance, patrol and rescue missions over the sea – up to ten kilometers off the coast. Since 2016, the helicopters have also been operating from the Indian-built patrol vessel Barracuda.
The area to be monitored is huge: the EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) of Mauritius, including the islands of Rodriguez and Agalega, is 2,000 times larger than its land mass of just over 2,000 square kilometers. In addition to helicopters, aircraft are therefore also used, and once again it is India that has equipped Mauritius’ coastguard with three, soon to be four, Dornier-228/202s built in Kanpur to detect illegal and suspicious ship movements using ELTA radar. Military Currently, 7.62 mm twin machine guns were shown as their first armament, which are intended to deter and, if necessary, fight potential pirates. But if India’s influence is not enough, Delhi is also increasingly pushing for military use of the northern island of Agalega. India sees itself “encircled” by the Chinese “pearl necklace project” from Myanmar, Sri Lanka and the Maldives to Djibouti and Gwadar in Pakistan and Mauritius as a natural ally. But not all Mauritians see it the same way and prefer to insist on their new trality. And yes, that also sounds somehow familiar to us Austrians.
