Big boost in Army’s aviation fire power

The Army Aviation Corps is in the process of boosting its aviation fire power with the planned induction of four different types of helicopters which includes: the indigenous Light Combat Helicopter (LCH), Light Utility Helicopter(LUH) & ALH Dhruv MK-III and Apache AH-64 attack helicopters. The entire process and plan about the induction and order of these 4 helicopters for army will be discussed in detail in today which will give you the complete idea about the Indian Army’s Aviation wing’s capability.

114 LCH

On 30th March 2022, the Cabinet committee on security chaired by PM Narendra Modi has given approval for procurement of 15 LCH – light combat Helicopter limited series production or LSP. Three LSP LCH has already been produced by HAL. 2 of them are already deployed by Air Force and remaining one by Army. It’s also important to note that Light combat helicopters are in the negative list of imports.

On June 1, 2022, the Army raised its first LCH squadron at Bengaluru. Next year, It will moved to Eastern Command. 7 LCH units are planned, each having 10 helicopters for combat roles in the mountains.

Indian Air Force has requirement of 65 LCH and army has requirement of 114 of them. As per the HAL’s CMD the PSU is expecting a much bigger order of LCH after the delivery of LSP. This can be expected sometime next year.

126 LUH

While the combat potential of Army has increased manifold and is on an upswing, the reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities are going to take a hit because of lack of Light Utility helicopters such as HAL’s LUH and Ka-226T. The Indian Army and Indian Air Force (IAF) together have combined requirement of over 500 helicopters of this class.

Last year in November, the Ministry of Defence had placed an initial order of 12 Light Utility Helicopters out of which 6 are for Indian Army and another 6 for the Indian Air Force. HAL has manufactured the first LUH(LSP) at the Tumakur plant. Before this, HAL had built three prototypes which have flown extensively during trials. The first four LUHs are likely to be completed by the end of this financial year, while the other eight will be built in next one, which is expected to be followed by series production aircraft. HAL is expecting a combined order from Army and Air force for 187 Light helicopters which include 126 for Indian Army and 61 for air force.

Recently we have also reported that HAL’s Tumkur facility is ready for Phase-I of operation which can produce 30 Helicopters per year and later can be upgraded to produce 60 helicopters per year.

25 ALH MK-III

The Army has three Aviation Brigades at Leh, Missamari and Jodhpur. It operates around 145 indigenous Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH), 75 of which are the weaponised version of Dhruv known as Rudra. In September 2021, the DAC has accorded the approval for the procurement of 25 ALH Mark III helicopters. HAL will start the production and deliveries of these helicopters also from this year onwards and will be inducted into Army in phased manner in next two years.

6 More Apache AH-64

As we know that the Cabinet Committee had initially sanctioned the procurement of 39 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters from the U.S. Following this, the IAF procured 22 Apaches in September 2015. India and the US signed another contract for the acquisition of six Apaches for the Indian Army during US President Donald Trump’s visit to New Delhi. There has been delay in the deliveries of these due to the COVID pandemic and are now scheduled to begin deliveries in early 2024. Additional six AH-64E Apache attack helicopters which will have indigenous fuselages manufactured by Tata Advanced Systems.



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