HAL secures copter order from Peru

[nitesh]

HAL-to-fly-into-LatAm-market-with-Cheetah

HAL to fly into LatAm market with Cheetah

After tasting success with its Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv’ helicopters, state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is poised to make further inroads into the Latin American market with its light helicopter Cheetah.

According to highly placed sources in the ministry of defence (MoD), “Surinam and Colombia have expressed interest in the ‘Cheetah’ helicopters.”

These countries have seen the performance of these helicopters and a team will probably travel there for the display, sources said.

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“The queries that we have received for the Latin American countries are for the civilian usage,” said sources

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Also, for the India Navy’s rotary UAVs, an agreement has already been reached with IAI of Israel for joint development, under which the conversion of the Cheetah helicopter will be done with introduction of automated controls.

“The choice of Cheetah was obvious as we have them in large numbers, all the three services use them and they are time-tested. While the contract has yet not been signed, we have started work on collection of aerodynamic data on Cheetah helicopter so that necessary flight control systems can be developed,” said officials of HAL.

To start with, two Cheetah helicopters will be converted—one in India and another in Israel. Subsequently, HAL will produce fresh Cheetah helicopters with the automatic control system in place.

 

[nitesh]

Guys check this: Dhruv is making mark internationally,

IndianExpress.com :: India bags $20 mn helicopter contract

India bags $20 mn helicopter contract
Manu Pubby
Posted online: Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 0033 hr

New Delhi, August 9: After getting a foothold in the South American market, India has bid successfully to get its second international contract for three Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) for an estimated $ 20 million from Turkey amidst stiff competition from global players.

The contract, finalised by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on Saturday, comes weeks after India made its debut in the international helicopter market by winning a $ 50 million order for seven indigenously built ALH for the Ecuadorian Air Force.
HAL Chairman Ashok Baweja confirmed that an Indian delegation in Turkey finalised the deal and the initial order of three helicopters is expected to go up further. The Indian Aviation giant will start delivering the three machines within six months.
“It was a very difficult country to sell to and we have made a breakthrough. This (the three helicopters) is the first lot and we are hoping to sell more. Turkey is planning to buy more helicopters in several phases,” Baweja told The Indian Express.
While he didn’t disclose the value of the deal, it is expected to be over the $ 20 million mark. Sources said Turkey is planning to buy around 17 ALH helicopters over the next few years and the total value of the deal could be close to $150 million.
What makes the success even more special for HAL is that its helicopter won the bid in the presence of American giant Bell that was also in the fray. Turkey is also known to have traditional preference for US made defence products.
After suffering a series of setbacks — it lost the race to supply 12 utility helicopters to the Chilean Air Force in January and the contract was bagged by American Bell 412 helicopter; and then failed to get a contract from Malaysia — the ALH seems to have made a mark in the international market.
It had won the Ecuador contract amidst competition from Elbit (Israel), Eurocopter and Kazan (Russia), and with Turkey in the bag, will look forward to contracts in the Latin American market where it is the frontrunner in several trials.The USP of the helicopter is its price that is sign ificantly lower than its competitors.

 

[Contrarian]

If we sold to Turkey then it definitely gives a LOT of credibility to the ALH much more than sales to Ecuador, etc.

But then, money is money whether from Africa or Europe!

 

[nitesh]

Broadsword: The Indian Navy’s Dhruv: falling between two stools

by Ajai Shukla

Prodded by questions from visitors to this blog, I have spoken in some depth to the Indian Navy as well as to the designers of the Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) about why the Indian Navy remains reluctant to accept the Dhruv into service; and also about what HAL has done to address the issues that the Navy has raised.

So here are the findings of this quick enquiry.

Currently there are 8 Dhruvs on the Indian Navy’s inventory. They operate mainly on communications, training and administrative duties from shore-based airfields. The navy does not plan to order any more Dhruvs.

The Navy believes that its helicopters (hereafter helos) must all have the capability to land on the deck of ships. That is in contrast with some brown-water navies that find it perfectly acceptable to operate the bulk of their aircraft primarily from the shore. For a helo to operate from a ship, the navy is demanding three additional “specific-to-navy” criteria

1. Strengthened Undercarraige. The undercarriage must be specially adapted for deck landings. Unlike landing on terra firma, where the impact is primarily in one dimension (that of the weight of the helicopter impacting on hard ground) a ship is moving in three dimensions (roll, pitch and yaw) and the undercarriage must be capable of absorbing the impact of landing in all three dimensions. The navy says that the Dhruv’s undercarriage does not meet that requirement.

2. Folding Main Rotor. An on-board helo has to be accommodated into a very small hangar space, which means that the main rotors must have a system of hinges, which allow them to be quickly folded before putting the helo into the hangar (and then, equally quickly, unfolded when it is brought out for another flight). The navy’s initially stated requirement was for the rotors to be folded within a width of 3.5 metres.

Furthermore, the navy wants an automatic blade folding facility, of the kind that is installed in its Sea King helos. In this, onboard electrical or hydraulic actuators fold up the blades quickly, rather than having to go through the longer and more painstaking process of manually folding the blades. Remember, that in the smaller warships, the tips of the main rotor blades extend beyond the deck, overhanging the sea. So manually folding them --- by removing bolts and supporting the blades during folding/unfolding --- is an exercise that the navy would rather avoid.

HAL had a problem with foldable blades, as well as with installing an automatic system. A senior Dhruv designer told me, “the requirement of Blade Folding with a width of 3.5 metres was not feasible due to the inherent design characteristics of the ALH hingeless Main Rotor Blade with an Integrated Dynamic System”.

However, HAL worked on the problem and came up with the concept of “segmented blades”, which would be 5.1 metres wide instead of the navy’s requirement of 3.5 metres. HAL says the navy has agreed to the 5.1 metre width, and that the process of manually folding the “segmented blades” has been demonstrated to the navy.

However, HAL has not installed an automatic folding facility. HAL tells me, “Automatic blade folding was not pursued due to weight penalty of about 100 kgs”.

It may be useful here, for the readers’ understanding, to describe what HAL means by “segmented blades”.

“Segmented blades” comprise of two blade parts. The outer part is folded inwards to obtain the desired folded width. The other option is that of “Hingeless blades”, which have no physical hinges. These are made of composite materials, which ensures “virtual hinges”.

3. More “Time on Task”. The navy is demanding that the Dhruv must be able to spend 2 hours and 20 minutes on task (i.e. airborne with its task payload), and have an additional reserve of 20 minutes.

The Dhruv is simply not capable of meeting this requirement. HAL points out that, “this (requirement) is beyond the inherent payload capacity of any 5.5 tonne class helicopter in the world and can be met with difficulty by a 10-tonne class helicopter, given the Naval specification and weight requirement.”

If the Dhruv were flying empty, additional fuel tanks could have given it the ability to meet the Time on Task requirements. But the navy demands that the Dhruv must carry a heavy weapons and sensor payload, which rules out the fitment of extra fuel tanks. The need to carry such weapons and sensor payload put most naval helos, e.g. the Sea King, in a much higher weight class (10-14 tonnes).

IN SIMPLE TERMS, THE 5.5 TONNE DHRUV FALL BETWEEN TWO STOOLS. IT IS TOO LARGE AND HEAVY TO PERFORM THE ROLE (SEARCH & RESCUE, COMMUNICATIONS, ETC) THAT 3-TONNE HELOS LIKE THE CHEETAH AND THE CHETAK CURRENTLY DO… AND TOO SMALL AND LIGHT TO REPLACE 10-14 TONNE HELOS LIKE THE SEA KING AND THE KAMOV.

Despite that, top HAL sources aver that torpedo/depth charge trials were carried out during 2001-02; and sonar, Electronic Support Measures (ESM) and High Frequency Communications Systems (HFCS) trials were carried out during 2004-05. Platform integration for an Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) role has been successfully completed, which includes ESM, sonar/sonics, torpedo and HFCS.

There were some problems faced during the 2004-05 trials with the reliability of the sensors, but HAL points out that the reliability issue needs to be dealt with by the vendors of the sensors, all of whom were selected by the navy.

And finally, there is no truth to the belief that a vibration problem is the navy’s main issue with the Dhruv. HAL designers say that, “With fine tuning of the Anti-Resonance Vibration Isolation System (ARIS), structural reinforcements and the introduction of Frahm dampers, the vibration problem has been resolved satisfactorily”.

 

[nitesh]

x posting

outlookindia.com | wired

India's blue-chip firm, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), will soon develop a 10-tonne class helicopter for the armed forces and is searching for foreign partners either from Russia or a France-based company.

The Defence Public Sector Undertaking (DPSU) plans to carry out the medium-lift helicopter programme in partnership with a foreign manufacturer.

"We plan to develop and build 10-tonne class helicopters in partnership with either the Eurocopter or the Russians. We are yet to finalise the partner for the programme, which would be done in the next few months," HAL Chairman Ashok Baweja told PTI today.

"Eurocopter and a Russian company have been shortlisted by HAL in its search for a partner in the helicopter development programme.

"We would zero in on our partner in next few months. This would be a joint venture between the selected company and HAL," Baweja said.

The DPSU has plans of producing around 350 helicopters in the 10-tonne class, keeping in view the market for medium-lift helicopters in the armed forces.

"We are hoping that the helicopter would be inducted by all the three services," he said.

HAL will be looking at the export potential of the helicopters also, as it would be developed with a foreign company.

"We also are looking at exporting the chopper. This will happen, as we would be working with the foreign partner," Baweja added.

The 10-tonne helicopter would be offered to the navy to meet its requirement for heavy-lift choppers. The navy had earlier refused to accept the HAL's flagship Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) 'Dhruv', as it did not meet its requirement.

Another chopper project HAL is working on is for manufacture of Light Utility Helicopters (LUH).

HAL has been asked to develop a 3-tonne light helicopter for the army and the IAF for replacing their fleet of 'Cheetah' and 'Chetak'.

"We are in the preliminary stages in the project and are working on the design of the LUH. This would be a 3-tonne helicopter with a single engine," Baweja said.

The LUH project would be completed in next five to six years and would help upgrade the helicopter fleet of the armed forces.

The army and the IAF want to replace around 300 'Cheetah' and 'Chetak' helicopters, which form the bulk of their rotary wing fleet. HAL would be producing 187 helicopters for the two forces, Baweja said.

The two forces had expressed a joint demand of 384 helicopters earlier, of which 197 would be procured directly from foreign vendors and the rest 187 developed and produced by HAL.

"The numbers can be increased in future as the navy is also looking to replace its fleet of the 'Cheetah' and 'Chetak' helicopters," the HAL chairman said.

The DPSU has also plans to sell around 100 such helicopters in the civilian sector with the demand for light helicopters has been steadily increasing in the country.

 

[Zaheerkhan]

great news!!!!

 

[nitesh]

LiveFist: HAL's Baweja: Two different prototypes of 5th Gen fighter, etc
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2008

HAL's Baweja: Two different prototypes of 5th Gen fighter, etc

A whole bunch of reporters sort of ambushed HAL chairman AK Baweja shortly after the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Committee meeting concluded this afternoon. He was nice enough to stick around and answer a few questions. Obviously a whole lot of questions were thrust upon him, so I'm just going to list out the updates of whatever he said:

For starters, the committee meeting yesterday has agreed to expedite the conversion of the existing Inter-governmental Agreement (IGA) on joint development of a fifth-generation fighter aircraft into a formal General Agreement (GA). Interestingly, HAL chairman AK Baweja points out that two separate prototypes with common minimum technology will be developed -- one by Russia (designated the Sukhoi T-50) and a separate one by India (designated FGFA for now). While the Russian aircraft will be a single-seater, the Indian FGFA will be a twin seater, but not a trainer version of the Russian counterpart. Baweja explained that as per IAF doctrinal inputs, they want a mix of both single and twin seaters, though they would prefer the Indian sider to develop a twin-seater platform. HAL will be contributing largely to composites, cockpits and avionics. The current AL-31FP engine will have to evolve into a more powerful turbofan -- HAL is working to enter into a joint development mechanism with Russia for the evolution of the FGFA engine as an upward derivative of the AL-31FP.

The 20-ton multirole transport aircraft (MRTA) proposal has moved forward as well. A 50:50 shareholders agreement is now awaiting approval from the Russian side.

The proposal for the HAL-built Light Observation Helicopter (LOH) being developed to replace the Cheetah/Chetak fleet will shortly be taken to the Cabinet for final approval. According to Baweja, concepts of the chopper are firmed up and in place, work has even begun. Baweja has formally committed to certification and delivery of the first 10 choppers in 6 years. Incidentally, Ecuador will soon order two more ALH Dhruvs, taking its total order to nine helicopters.

HAL will build engines for any follow-on MiG-29Ks that the Navy orders. And the Chetak naval UAV being built by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) will make its first flight in a year. A formal contract with HAL is currently pending final approval.