COLLECTIVE HIGH

India's indigenous rotorcraft development has made significant strides, with key programs like the ALH Dhruv, LCH Prachand, LUH, and IMRH/DBMRH shaping the country's aerospace and defense future. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) continues to expand production, strengthen self-reliance, and reduce dependence on imports. These advancements position India as a formidable force in helicopter manufacturing, highlights

- ATUL CHANDRA

India today has four important indigenous rotorcraft development programmes underway in the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) ‘Dhruv’, Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) ‘Prachand’, Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) and the Indian Multirole Helicopter/Deck Based Multi Role Helicopter (IMRH/DBMRH). This can be considered one of the greatest successes in India’s aerospace and defence story and shows the path forward for the growth of the domestic defence industry. At present, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is producing six different variants of indigenously developed helicopters in the ALH ‘Dhruv MkIII, MkIV, MkIII MR (Maritime), Upgraded Civil; LCH and LUH. In addition to this, it is also still producing Chetak helicopters under license.

HAL has announced plans to produce over 1,000 helicopters in the range of 3-15 tonnes, which would generate over INR four lakh crores of business by 2043. HAL’s New Helicopter Factory in Tumakuru and its existing plant at Bengaluru, have a peak production rate of 30 helicopters each for a cumulative annual production rate of 60 helicopters. There has been a recent setback, however, with the fleetwide grounding of the ALH fleet, following a fatal Indian Coast Guard (ICG) accident. The grounding of the approximately 330 strong fleet of Dhruv helicopters in service is a blow for HAL, which has also been pursuing export opportunities for these helicopters. As of June 2024, HAL had produced a total of 345 Dhruv helicopters, including 313 for the Indian Armed Forces.

ALH