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HAL LCH completes crucial air-to-air missile test | Induction ready for Indian Army, IAF

With a major test achieved successfully on Thursday, the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) made Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) became ready for operational induction.

HAL LCH completes crucial air-to-air missile test | Induction ready for Indian Army, IAF

(Photo: iStock)

With a major test achieved successfully on Thursday, the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) made Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) became ready for operational induction.

The LCH completed weapon trials with a successful air-to-air missile firing on a moving aerial target on 17 January.

Calling the achievement a “milestone” HAL said in a statement that a “direct hit on the aerial target was achieved, destroying it completely”.

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The trial was conducted at the integrated test range in Chandipur on Odisha coast. Wing Commander (retired) Subash P John, HAL’s flight test engineer Col Ranjit Chitale (retired) and test pilot from Indian Air Force (IAF) Group Captain Rajeev Dubey were involved in the test.

The attack helicopter, the first to be made indigenously, is equipped with helmet-mounted sight and a forward looking infrared sighting system, allowing its pilots to detect and destroy any target on ground or in the air.

“Using these sights, pilots can launch a missile onto any target without having to turn the helicopter,” the statement said.

HAL managing director R Madhavan said that it was the first time in the country that a helicopter carried out air-to-air missile engagement.

“With this, LCH has completed all weapon integration tests and is ready for operational induction,” he said in the statement.

Test on the other weapons on the LCH such as a 20mm Turret gun and 70 mm Rockets were completed in 2018.

HAL said that the assault helicopter is the only one of its kind in the world capable of operating at altitudes as high as Siachen Glacier (in the Karakoram mountain range of the Himalayas).

According to the defence PSU, the chopper is equipped with the ‘fire and forget missile’ system which is effective against all kinds of aerial threat, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and microlight aircraft.

The LCH is designed and developed by Rotary Wing Research & Design Centre (RWRDC) of HAL.

HAL said that the Defence Acquisition Council has approved the procurement of first batch of 15 LCHs – 10 for IAF and five for Indian Army.

Indian armed forces are badly in need of attack helicopters, which are extremely important for air defence as well as ground support missions especially in times of enemy aggression.

Flightglobal data from 2018 reveals that the Indian Air Force (IAF) has only 15 Russian-made Mi35 variant of the Soviet era Mil Mi-24 attack helicopter. Reports say that the Indian Army now operates 22 of the Rudra attack helicopter variant of HAL Dhruva while the IAF has eight. The IAF will soon have 22 AH-64E Apache heavy attack helicopters from the United States.

On the contrary, the aviation wing of the China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) currently has around 200 attack helicopters of CAIC WZ-10 and Harbin Z-19 types.

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