The government will keep 51% equity with an Indian company, while asking the foreign partner to do technology transfer, the people said, asking not to be identified as the deliberations are at an early stage. The jets, which typically seat less than 100 people, are likely to be produced in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, they said.

The world’s fastest-growing aviation market is trying to ramp up its small-plane fleet as airports with limited capacity and short runways are not equipped to handle narrow-body planes of Airbus SE and Boeing Co. that dominate the Indian skies. This will help the government bolster tourism and facilitate faster access to remote areas in the South Asian giant of 1.4 billion, which recently has been seen to surpass China in population.

India mandates airlines operate at least 10% of their capacity on remote routes, including Kashmir and the Northeast bordering China, which means smaller planes could be more efficient for airlines as they can fill a larger share of total seats.

Airbus SE estimates India will need 2,210 aircrafts by 2040 and 80% of them will be smaller jets. The country has piqued global turboprop makers’ interest, with De Havilland Aircraft planning to seize 80% of its market for smaller planes of less than 20 passengers.

Regional Workhorse

India has completed preliminary discussions with Embraer, while Sukhoi has expressed interest in manufacturing regional jets locally, the people said. In addition, the country has also approached ATR, a joint venture between Airbus and Leonardo SpA of Italy, to make in India, they added.

Embraer said India has “significant opportunities” for regional jets and the manufacturer “continuously looks for ways to collaborate with India to find win-win solutions”. Representatives for Sukhoi, ATR and the aviation ministry didn’t respond to emails seeking comments.

ATR small planes are the workhorse of regional routes in India with the nation’s top carrier, IndiGo, operating 39 of them. Rival De Havilland’s Dash-8 Q400 turboprops, which seat between 78 and 90 people, are operated by SpiceJet Ltd. State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. is already manufacturing the 19-seater Dornier 228 aircraft used by the armed forces and Alliance Air.

The plan is vital to Modi’s push to promote manufacturing and boost economic productivity while creating jobs. The government is strengthening last-mile connectivity by giving subsidies to airlines to make air travel more economical. As part of a regional connectivity program, India has allocated 45 billion rupees ($545 million) to develop 100 inadequately-served airports, heliports and water aerodromes, besides opening 1,000 new routes by next year.

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According to its makers, the LCH is the only attack helicopter in the world which can land and take off at an altitude of 5,000 meters with a considerable load of weapons and fuel, meeting the specific requirements laid out by the Indian Armed Forces.

Here is the story of its development by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), its unique features, its importance as a strategic asset and the road it faces ahead.

Genesis of the Light Combat Helicopter

It was during the 1999 Kargil war that the need was first felt for a homegrown lightweight assault helicopter that could hold precision strikes in all Indian battlefield scenarios. This meant a craft that could operate in very hot deserts and also in very cold high altitudes, in counter-insurgency scenarios to full-scale battle conditions.

India has been operating sub 3 ton category French-origin legacy helicopters, Chetak and Cheetah, made in India by the HAL. These single engine machines were, primarily, utility helicopters. Indian forces also operate the Lancer, an armed version of Cheetah. In addition, the Indian Air Force currently operates the Russian origin Mi-17 and its variants Mi-17 IV and Mi-17 V5, with maximum take off weight of 13 tonnes, which are to be phased out starting 2028.

But the requirement was for a more agile, multi-role dedicated attack helicopter. After the initial deliberations, the government sanctioned the LCH project in October 2006, and HAL was tasked to develop it. The HAL’s Rotary Wing Research and Development Centre, which had already worked on the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruva and its weaponised version ALH Rudra, embarked upon the project.

The development of Light Combat Helicopter

The LCH has been designed as a twin-engine, dedicated combat helicopter of 5.8-ton class, thus categorised as light. It features a narrow fuselage and tandem — one behind the other — configuration for pilot and co-pilot. The copilot is also the Weapon Systems Operator (WSO). While LCH inherits many features of the ALH, it mainly differs in tandem cockpit configuration, making it sleeker. It also has many more state-of-art systems that make it a dedicated attack helicopter.

In the LCH’s journey towards clearance and induction by the IAF and the Army, extensive flight testing has been carried out on four prototypes, also known as Technology Demonstrators (TDs).

The first Technology Demonstrator was completed in February 2010 and took its first flight on March 29 the same year. TD-2 prototype, completed around 2012, successfully passed the cold weather trials at high altitude. TD-3 and TD-4 prototypes, completed around 2014 and 2015, successfully tested other flight test requirements.

HAL officials said that the flight testing was carried out at various altitudes, from sea level to the Siachen range, in extreme cold and hot weather conditions, and in desert regions. During these tests, integration of mission sensors such as electro-optical system, helmet-mounted display system, solid state data and video recorder, and weapon systems such as turret gun, rockets and air-to-air missile systems was carried out. Weapon firing trials were also completed. The four prototypes have together undergone over 2,000 flights with close to 1600 flight hours.

Initial operational clearance came in 2017 for the IAF variant and in 2019 for the Army variant. In August 2020, the MoD added LCH to the items under import embargo. In November 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi symbolically handed over the LCH to the Indian Air Force, paving the way for its final induction.

In March this year, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approved procurement of 15 LCH Limited Series Production (LSP) — 10 for IAF and five for Army — at the cost of Rs 3,887 crore along with infrastructure sanctions worth Rs 377 crore.

Features, significance of the Light Combat Helicopter

LCH has the maximum take-off weight of 5.8 tonnes, maximum speed of 268 kilometers per hour, range of 550 kilometers, endurance of over three hours and service ceiling — the maximum density altitude to which it can fly — of 6.5 kilometres.

The helicopter uses radar-absorbing material to lower radar signature and has a significantly crash-proof structure and landing gear. A pressurised cabin offers protection from nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) contingencies.

The helicopter is equipped with a countermeasure dispensing system that protects it from enemy radars or infrared seekers of the enemy missiles. As far as weapons systems are concerned, a 20 mm turret gun, 70 mm rockets and air-to-air missile systems are onboard.

LCH is powered by two French-origin Shakti engines manufactured by the HAL.

With these features, the LCH has the capabilities of combat roles such as destruction of enemy air defence, counter insurgency warfare, combat search and rescue, anti-tank, and counter surface force operations.

The road ahead

According to HAL there is a projected requirement of 160 LCHs — 65 for IAF and 95 for Indian Army. After receiving a contract for the LSP in March, some units have already been delivered and the rest are at various stages of acceptance. HAL has said that it has drawn a detailed masterplan for achieving the peak rate production capacity of 30 helicopters per year in order to produce the remaining 145 LCHs in eight years from the date of signing of Series Production order.

For export, the HAL has already obtained a no objection certificate from the Ministry of Defence for countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Angola, Egypt, Indonesia, Ecuador and Nigeria, sources have said.

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“HAL has successfully developed the basic trainer aircraft (HTT-40) to address the training requirements of IAF. There is a potential requirement of 70 aircraft. The contract with IAF for the same is in an advanced stage of approval,” chairman R Madhavan said.

The central government has imposed a phased ban on the import of 310 different types of weapons and systems to boost self-reliance in the defence manufacturing sector, and basic trainers feature on that list.

Rookie pilots in the IAF go through a three-stage training process involving the Pilatus PC-7 MkII basic trainers, Surya Kiran trainers and finally the British-origin Hawk advanced jet trainers before they can fly fighter jets.

In August 2020, the defence ministry gave a go-ahead for the purchase of indigenous basic trainer aircraft for IAF to provide a push to the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India) vision.

The defence acquisition council (DAC) accorded its acceptance of necessity (AoN) to buy 106 HTT-40 aircraft from HAL. Under India’s defence procurement rules, an AoN by the council is the first step towards buying military hardware. The IAF plans to order the basic trainers in two batches – 70 and 36, the officials said.

The HTT-40 aircraft has undergone a string of elaborate tests at HAL to demonstrate that it is safe for rookie pilots and meets the IAF’s exacting standards for trainer planes.

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“HAL has successfully developed the basic trainer aircraft (HTT-40) to address the training requirements of IAF. There is a potential requirement of 70 aircraft. The contract with IAF for the same is in an advanced stage of approval,” chairman R Madhavan said.

The central government has imposed a phased ban on the import of 310 different types of weapons and systems to boost self-reliance in the defence manufacturing sector, and basic trainers feature on that list.

Rookie pilots in the IAF go through a three-stage training process involving the Pilatus PC-7 MkII basic trainers, Surya Kiran trainers and finally the British-origin Hawk advanced jet trainers before they can fly fighter jets.

In August 2020, the defence ministry gave a go-ahead for the purchase of indigenous basic trainer aircraft for IAF to provide a push to the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India) vision.

The defence acquisition council (DAC) accorded its acceptance of necessity (AoN) to buy 106 HTT-40 aircraft from HAL. Under India’s defence procurement rules, an AoN by the council is the first step towards buying military hardware. The IAF plans to order the basic trainers in two batches – 70 and 36, the officials said.

The HTT-40 aircraft has undergone a string of elaborate tests at HAL to demonstrate that it is safe for rookie pilots and meets the IAF’s exacting standards for trainer planes.

The post HAL signs $100-mn contract with US firm for trainer aircraft engines appeared first on IMR.

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.

The post HAL seeking partners to design multi-role and deck-based helicopters appeared first on IMR.

The move, will provide India’s defence ecosystem with new capabilities and cost effective solutions in the market,” said the IAF.

“The MoU will facilitate HAL and IAI’s decades’ long expertise in developing, manufacturing and producing leading defence platforms. The scope of the MoU also covers ‘passenger to freighter aircraft’ conversion, along with MMTT conversions.

IAI has experience in modified aircraft for the IAF. In the early 2000s, IAI fitted the Phalcon radar into three IAF IL-76 aircraft, converting them into Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS).

With the Russian options considered outdated, the IAF will probably have to choose between the Airbus and Boeing options.

The Airbus 330 MRTT carries more fuel than the KC-46A Pegasus – 111 tonnes, as against 96 tonnes – but which remains in many respects a civilian airliner that retains commercial airline-style seating inside for 291 passengers. The KC-46A Pegasus has modular, military style, palletised seating that can be quickly bolted on for up to 160 passengers. Alternatively, it can carry 54 stretchers with patients.

The KC-46A’s tanker-specific avionics include state-of-the-art displays developed for the 787 Dreamliner. The USAF has insisted on the “boom operator” – who operates the boom that pumps fuel at 1,200 gallons per minute into the aircraft being refuelled – having a three-dimensional view from seven cameras that look to the rear.

Airbus, however, points out that its A330-200 has won practically every MRTT contest in the world. It has logged orders from the air forces of Australia, the UK, France, Saudi Arabia, The Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, and the UAE.

For the past decade-and-a-half, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has been trying to buy six MMTT aircraft to supplement its eight obsolescent Russian Illyushin-78 refuellers.

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