Light Combat Helicopter
In 2006, HAL announced its plans to build a LCH. Funds for the design and development of the LCH to meet the requirements of the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force were sanctioned in October 2006.
The LCH is a derivative of the HAL Dhruv, which was inducted into the Indian armed forces. Using a successful and proven helicopter as the base platform is expected to conserve the project costs for the LCH, which is pegged at INR 3.76 Billion (US$78.8M).
The LCH was expected to be ready for the Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) by December 2010 with the Final Operational Clearance (FOC) in 2011. However, the revised timeframes hold that the 5.5-tonne LCH should be ready for induction into IAF by 2012-2013.
The first prototype of LCH completed its first ground run on February 4. HAL has a firm order to deliver 65 LCH to the IAF and 114 to the Army.
HAL has performed the maiden flight of its indigenously designed and developed LCH. The first Technology Demonstrator (TD-1) of the LCH flew the 20 minute flight from HAL's Helicopter Complex, Bangalore on 29th March 2010. This flight provided an opportunity to carry out low speed, low altitude checks on the systems on-board. The crew reported that the performance of the helicopter and systems was satisfactory.
Comments
Post a Comment