HAL LCH| Updates and Discussions

[KEETARP]

So you are saying LCH has used and tested Mistral?

Dash Ji ,
I said WSI Dhruv , not LCH .

Thats what i said, that only tests are happening on European and Amercan Combat helos

Weaponed dhruv did same - A2A firing of Mistral .

And only TD-2 of LCH will be used for Weapon trials , which is yet to see the Indian skies . May be by end of 2010

Do you know which ATGM Dhruv carries?

LAHAT was used in trials . No update whether trials are over or not .
Once it is inducted officialy - Col Shukla will help us

 

[KEETARP]

Yup Got it ,

Dhruv with MISTRAL above

Dhruv with LAHAT below two

All courtsey - Paris air show site
PARIS AIR SHOW

 

[Kinetic]

^^^ I think along with LAHAT, HELINA will be there for WSI Dhruv and LCH.


Dash, I think Prateek sir replied your queries better than me.

 

[Dash]

Yeah, that cleared the doubt.
I was under the impression after seeing a LCH mock up, a missile which said MBDA. I thought its brimestone ATGM for LCH though.

So that was MBDA mistral.

 

[Kinetic]

Two pics of LCH... (front view)

Source: H Nair

 

[KS]

What happened to the LCH..? what phase of testing it is in now.?

Any news..anybody.? Especially Bangaloreans.

 

[ISRO Go!]

Two pics of LCH... (front view)

Source: H Nair

i love LCH,they are cool guys

 

[Water Car Engineer]

When is the induction of the LCH? And when is the next prototype going to fly?

 

[Water Car Engineer]

Nice video

 

[gowthamraj]

Hot shot

 

[gowthamraj]

Still no flight of second one

 

[angeldemon_007]

I must say HAL has achieved a great success by developing a world class fighting helicopter like LCH and even Dhruv is also a decent helo. I saw some1 comparing israel's modified black hawk and lch. Now Indian army is on a spree of inducting some attacking and some medium helicopter so as to carry special ops and i believe *** a goodwill to IAF they will induct LCH and dhruv for those purposes. In my opinion, as a fan of defense machines like Black Hawk, I think India should go for them because of following reasons :
1) I think every1 would admit that they are the most suitable helicopter for special operations plus they can carry more than Dhruv and they can be very lethal.

2) Sircosky has decided to shift its entire manufacturing unit to India even if India decides to purchase 60+ helos.
Sikorsky Plans to Make Black Hawk in India - WSJ.com
As many of you know that Sirkosky has tie up with Tata and if India purchases black hawk, then they will manufacture helos from upcoming aerospace Tata SEZ in Andhra.

3) Somebody talked about high cost and maintance.
1 black hawk=14 million $ (both attack and medium helos)
1 dhruv = 9.08 million $
1 LCH = ???? (but i still think it wont be around 14- 9.08=4.92million $)

4) Even Sirkosky claims that they could fit black hawk with higher power engine for higher altitude location in India like Ladhakh.

5) I am sure HAL's Dhruv and LCH is a success but we have to admit black hawk is a beauty. Hal should continue to work in this field but in case of nations security we should not compromise like this. Dhruv can be used for many other purposes like in civilian cases, air ambulance, fire fighter etc.

6) Dhruv and LCH were made keeping in view of high altitude locations like leh and ladakh but in a country like India with such a great geographical diversity with problems like naxalites and floods every year, we should consider buying them.
Indian army is worlds secoond biggest army and ironically we operate only around 200 helos (source wiki). India should buy black hawk even for its special forces like nsg, garud, marcos, Para Commandos, ssg etc. If black hawk cannot manage to work at high altitudes like leh then we can buy 20, 20 LCH and Dhruv for those purposes. But apart from this I think India should go for these multi-purpose beauties. (Also India is the only country after US to manufacture them and that too will be our TATA)
Feel free to comment...

 

[angeldemon_007]

Indian army is looking for 197 helicopters and if any of you had seen the tender then the helos competing for those orders look just like our dhruv. I dont know what army is looking for ??/ Seriously why they are going for such a tender ?? What army will carry in light helicopters ??/
I cant understand why they cant go for helos like black hawk when they are offered ?/ An army which operates only around 200 helos at present, if they are going for 197 this kind of helos then I think its a waste of money.

In my opinion they should use :
# 200 black hawk(they can also carry stuff ie. they can work as dhruv's replacement)
# 100 lch (i know i was against but they are really light and might be useful in some locations + a good advanced machine).
# 12 heavy lift Chinook helos ordered(Number must be increased to 50)
# 24 Apache attack helos ordered(number must be increased to 50)
# 50 Dhruv(I know i dont agree but still our army can have 50 of them)
Apart from this around 100 black hawks for paramilitary forces fighting against naxalite in case of quick mobalisation or even evacuation and NSG especially for operations like in 26/11.

In short Indian army has to increase its air power based on its size and i think they should go for black hawks as they are the best helos.

 

[Kinetic]

Ecuadorian air force (FAE) officials on board LCH. Found this pic on Militaryphotos.net forum on the Ecuadorian Armed Forces pics thread. Via: BR

HAL chairman said that FAE is extremely happy with the performance of Dhruv and may order more. Malaysian and Indonesian forces may order Dhruv as well. But HAL's primary target is to meet the requirements of Indian armed forces. They are expanding the production line to 38 Dhruv per year for Indian armed forces only. Other export oriented and non-miltary orders will get extra production facilities. State govts and other public/private companies also ordered Dhruv.

 

[Abingdonboy]

Ecuadorian air force (FAE) officials on board LCH. Found this pic on Militaryphotos.net forum on the Ecuadorian Armed Forces pics thread. Via: BR

HAL chairman said that FAE is extremely happy with the performance of Dhruv and may order more. Malaysian and Indonesian air forces may order Dhruv. But HAL's primary target is to meet the requirements of Indian armed forces. They have expanding the production line to 38 Dhruv per year for Indian armed forces. Other export oriented orders will get extra production facilities. State govts and other private companies also ordered Dhruv.

HMMMM.. very interesting, it seems they are happy with the Dhruv, so is the LCH the next obvious export to them??