Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has issued an Expression of Interest (Eoi) for the selection of partners for the design, development, and manufacturing of Indian Multi-Role Helicopter (IMRH) And Deck Based Multi-Role Helicopter (DBMRH) on Public-Private Partnership model through Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) model.
The new company will have private players’ majority stake so that it does not become a full government entity. IMRH will replace the Russian Mi-17 helicopters in the Indian Army and Indian Air force fleet and DBMRH will replace the Sea King Mk.42B and supplement the MH-60R fleet in Indian Navy.
According to EoI, HAL plans to build 3 IMRH and 3 DBMRH in the next few years that will be used for developmental and flight trials. Selected partners will be assured of orders for nearly 400 IMRH and DBMRH with peak annual production capacities to be around 36 per year.
DBMRH will be a customized Naval Multi-Mission Capability helicopter that can perform Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) / Anti-Surface (ASuW) Special Operations / Search & Rescue (SAR) Utility / Vertical Replenishment (VERTREP), Command and Control (C2). While externally DBMRH will be similar to the IMRH, it will have a higher all-up weight of 1.2tons and a different engine that is more powerful and likely from a different vendor.
