HAL to start manufacturing of Light Utility Helicopters for IAF, Army

The Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) that will be domestically manufactured got the initial operational clearance paving the way for production to start for replacing the ageing fleet of Cheetah and Chetak helicopters.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited will be manufacturing close to 200 helicopters that are indigenously designed and developed to meet the operational requirements of Indian Army and Indian Air Force.

The big announcement came at the ongoing Def-Expo being held in Lucknow.

R Madhavan, CMD, HAL received the IOC document from Mr. G Sateesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence R & D and Chairman, Defence Research and Development Organisation at the 'Bandhan' programme held at ongoing Def-Expo 2020 today in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath among others.

"This is a momentous occasion for HAL. It reinforces our commitment towards indigenous R&D programs on self-reliance and enhancing operational effectiveness of the Indian Armed Forces. HAL is fully geared up to fulfill the requirements of its customers in a time bound manner," said R Madhavan, CMD of HAL.

Arup Chatterjee, Director, Engineering & R&D, HAL, said the performance of basic configuration of LUH in all terrains and under all weather conditions is satisfactory and HAL is moving towards the next phase of integrating and flight testing of Mission & Role Equipment on LUH.

One LUH Prototype is part of flying display and another is part of static display at the Def-Expo 2020.

"Till now three prototypes have been built and cumulatively completed over 550 flights under various terrains and climatic conditions like cold weather, hot weather, sea-level and high altitude complying to stringent certification and user requirements," HAL said in a statement.

HAL added that the helicopter's endurance and reliability were established during the hot weather and high-altitude trials when LUH was ferried from Bangalore, covering over 7000 km of distance and continuously flying for 17 days without any abnormalities.