India's Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) broke a World Record.
India's Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) broke records when it flew at one of the world's highest landing bases located in Siachen with a decent weapons payload. The attack helicopter scaled an altitude of 4.8km from sea level to one of the most remote, inhospitable environments known to human beings.
The Light Combat Helicopter is the first attack helicopter to have ever landed on a forward landing base at Siachen with a 400kg payload. The chopper has completed all performance trials and is now heading towards Final Operational Clearance.
The HAL which is responsible for the development of this attack helicopter has made four prototype helicopters which together have clocked more than 600 test flights. The Helicopter can be integrated with different weapon payloads. The weapons can wary depending on the requirement by the IAF, Navy and Army.
The helicopter has finished all weather trials and has performed exceptionally well. It is the only helicopter in the world that can operate at an altitude of 10 to 20000 feet with a significant amount of weapons payload and is the first attack heli in the world to land at Siachen.
“The flight trials at Leh have established hover performance and low speed handling characteristics of the helicopter under extreme weather conditions at different altitudes (3200 to 4800 m). During the trials, the helicopter and systems performed satisfactorily,” according to the chairman of HAL, T. Suvarna Raju.
In February 2015, the LCH successfully completed “cold weather flight trials” in Ladakh and in June “hot weather flight trials” around Jodhpur. “The performance and handling qualities of the helicopter have been established for basic configuration (with electro-optical pod, rocket launchers, turret gun and air-to-air missile launchers). Further development activities are under progress and the weapon firing trials are planned during in the middle of 2016,” according to a HAL press release quoted in the Business Standard.
The LCH, which made its maiden flight in May 2010, has been specifically developed in response to the lack of an attack helicopter capable of performing high-altitude operations during the 1999 Kargil War. Consequently, the LCH, a derivative of the HAL Dhruv helicopter, has been primarily designed for high-altitude warfare–HAL and French engine-maker, Turbomeca jointly designed a special engine optimized for extreme altitudes–and has an operational ceiling limit of 6,000–6,500 meters (19,700– 21,300 feet).
So far the Indian Army’s Army Aviation Corps (AAC) has ordered 114 helicopters and the IAF 65. However, IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly reports that this number is slated to increase to 180 given that the army wants to deploy the new helicopter to all of its 13 corps and other formations. Apart from IAF, some other countries including Japan are wishing to buy the lightest helicopter. The success of the LCH is an opportunity for India to open all closed windows and allow global investors to manufacture indigenous heavy weapons.
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