HAL Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) and Light Observation Helicopter (LOH)

thebakofbakchod

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Aditya Ballal

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Gujarat based aircraft leasing company, Vman Aviation Services IFSC Pvt. Ltd. has signed an agreement with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on Monday to procure 5 Light Utility Helicopters (LUH).
The company will employ the rotorcraft to cater a variety of services including chattee, shuttle, urban mobility, HEMS, aerial work, search and rescue and law enforcement. The platform suits the criteria for such roles, and the company hopes to order 5 more if it feels necessary.
 

abingdonboy

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Pushing for MRFA whilst neglecting LUH, LCA MK.2, ATAGS, HTT-40 etc etc

this isn’t a sustainable situation, if Indian military leadership isn’t willing to exercise their mandate to allow their services to fulfil their mission then they should either resign as men of principle (so they say) or there should be examples made of them


6+6 is the biggest insult you could make to all those that have to operate those 1950s era flying coffins on a daily basis that don’t even have basic features.
 

silverghost

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"Feeling Prod" Indian army will very proudly crash their entire remaining fleet instead of ordering its replacements. Them, then that idiot Rajnath Singh are as useless as they can get. Meanwhil LUH got a whopping order of 6+6!
Absolutely! Every time a Cheetah/Chetak crashes some high-level IAF officer will fly a Cheetah/Chetak for half hour to show that the helicopter is safe. This happens until the next Cheetah/Chetak crashes following which they will run the same playbook. They have been doing this with these helicopters & similar stuff with Mig 21. The only Defense minister who could twist their arm was Parrikar, with him gone they are back to their same old tactics. Rajnath is quite clueless, the Defense Minister position should be headed by a technocrat, & not by somebody who can't tell the difference between an assault rifle and a carbine.
 

abingdonboy

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Absolutely! Every time a Cheetah/Chetak crashes some high-level IAF officer will fly a Cheetah/Chetak for half hour to show that the helicopter is safe. This happens until the next Cheetah/Chetak crashes following which they will run the same playbook. They have been doing this with these helicopters & similar stuff with Mig 21. The only Defense minister who could twist their arm was Parrikar, with him gone they are back to their same old tactics. Rajnath is quite clueless, the Defense Minister position should be headed by a technocrat, & not by somebody who can't tell the difference between an assault rifle and a carbine.
Ask that general to fly the Chetak/Cheetah at night or in anything less than perfect weather. Purely from a capability perspective you’d think they’d be jumping at the upgrade from legacy to LUH. The latter is all weather and fully night capable with a payload >5X of the other 2 and will likely have far higher availability rates.

Utter morons, they’ll retire happily into their posh neighbourhoods whilst yet another generation of young officers have to put up with cr@p from their grandfather’s era. You’d think the staff officer class would have at least some shame
 

jai jaganath

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Absolutely! Every time a Cheetah/Chetak crashes some high-level IAF officer will fly a Cheetah/Chetak for half hour to show that the helicopter is safe. This happens until the next Cheetah/Chetak crashes following which they will run the same playbook. They have been doing this with these helicopters & similar stuff with Mig 21. The only Defense minister who could twist their arm was Parrikar, with him gone they are back to their same old tactics. Rajnath is quite clueless, the Defense Minister position should be headed by a technocrat, & not by somebody who can't tell the difference between an assault rifle and a carbine.
It's rajnath singh who is stopping gernails from destroying indigenous weapons
It's him who is forcing them to buy the system
It'd him who is blocking their ways to import
It's him due to which dap was made and things being developed in accordance to it
Before scolding a person know what he is
It's the gernails who are creating problems
They are the ones who are causing harm to armed forces due to their selfish goals
It's rajnath who is making them procure indigenous although few nos due to reluctance from forces
When u have the worst defense ministers in past except parrikar ji we literally have the best time being
I am not saying there can't be good than him but he is oen of the good ones
 

fooLIam

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It's rajnath singh who is stopping gernails from destroying indigenous weapons
It's him who is forcing them to buy the system
It'd him who is blocking their ways to import
It's him due to which dap was made and things being developed in accordance to it
Before scolding a person know what he is
It's the gernails who are creating problems
They are the ones who are causing harm to armed forces due to their selfish goals
It's rajnath who is making them procure indigenous although few nos due to reluctance from forces
When u have the worst defense ministers in past except parrikar ji we literally have the best time being
I am not saying there can't be good than him but he is oen of the good ones
Be that as may he is not institutionalising the thing nor he is making example out of such officers but it is attitude of all ministries. If our political system was like china ,it would be okay but here we are chaotic dumbocracy where any gawar can be elected.
 

jai jaganath

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Be that as may he is not institutionalising the thing nor he is making example out of such officers but it is attitude of all ministries. If our political system was like china ,it would be okay but here we are chaotic dumbocracy where any gawar can be elected.
He is one of the best guy we can have right now
And he is not dumb
 

Blademaster

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Never said he was but tomorrow any one can come. Thing is our goverment should learn to fire incompetent and greedy traitous officers.
Problem is that the opposition parties will politicize the issue and the SC would wade into this issue and assert ever more of its powers, something we do not want. We need to neutralize the SC before we can implement the reforms we need.
 

silverghost

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It's rajnath singh who is stopping gernails from destroying indigenous weapons
It's him who is forcing them to buy the system
It'd him who is blocking their ways to import
It's him due to which dap was made and things being developed in accordance to it
Before scolding a person know what he is
It's the gernails who are creating problems
They are the ones who are causing harm to armed forces due to their selfish goals
It's rajnath who is making them procure indigenous although few nos due to reluctance from forces
When u have the worst defense ministers in past except parrikar ji we literally have the best time being
I am not saying there can't be good than him but he is oen of the good ones
Rajnath Singh is the defense minister of India. He can do exactly what Parrikar did when IAF rejected Tejas Mk1, but look at the anemic order for LCH, LUH. LCH you can argue that it's not fully weaponized but what about LUH? What is so valuable about these two types of helicopters is that our young officers have to give their lives to keep them flying. Their state is such that even if India provides them for free to the poorest country in the world, they won't take them. My point is Rajnath should show some guts & read the riot act, there is no need to tolerate incompetence.
 

NutCracker

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Pushing for MRFA whilst neglecting LUH, LCA MK.2, ATAGS, HTT-40 etc etc

this isn’t a sustainable situation, if Indian military leadership isn’t willing to exercise their mandate to allow their services to fulfil their mission then they should either resign as men of principle (so they say) or there should be examples made of them


6+6 is the biggest insult you could make to all those that have to operate those 1950s era flying coffins on a daily basis that don’t even have basic features.
And it costs f$kin pennies.. Basic transportation variant of LUH might be around 8M$ only..

It could be lower with bigger order of 350 . 2.5B$ spread across 5 years and everything could be sorted.
 

johnj

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Pushing for MRFA whilst neglecting LUH, LCA MK.2, ATAGS, HTT-40 etc etc

this isn’t a sustainable situation, if Indian military leadership isn’t willing to exercise their mandate to allow their services to fulfil their mission then they should either resign as men of principle (so they say) or there should be examples made of them


6+6 is the biggest insult you could make to all those that have to operate those 1950s era flying coffins on a daily basis that don’t even have basic features.
Try to understand, need money for freebies, election is very near and not supporting mrfa.
Rajnath Singh needs to be replaced. I know some people are a big fan of his, and maybe he's good. But considering how expeditious things were going under the prior defense minister who was excellent, and considering how things have ground down to such a halt... he needs to be replaced.
By who ? wait who bring ka226t in between ? does any one want luh & lch ? only interested in foreign ones ? may be navy, cost guard consider luh.
 

LondonParisTokyo

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Try to understand, need money for freebies, election is very near and not supporting mrfa.

By who ? wait who bring ka226t in between ? does any one want luh & lch ? only interested in foreign ones ? may be navy, cost guard consider luh.
Are there any engineers or people with technical qualifications?
 

WolfPack86

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HAL RECEIVES LETTER OF INTENT FOR 12 INDIGENOUS UTILITY HELICOPTERS, NINE LCH READY
Army looking to acquire 11 more Apache attack helicopters


Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has received the Letter of Intent from the Services for the manufacture of 12 Light Utility Helicopters (LUH), which have been designed and developed indigenously. At the same time, nine Light Combat Helicopters (LCH) have been manufactured against the sanction of 15 limited series production (LSP) variants and are in the process of being handed over to the Services.

In another development, the Army is in negotiations for acquiring 11 more Apache AH-64E attack helicopters from the U.S.

“Production work has begun. Two LUH are in an advanced stage of completion,” a HAL source confirmed.

In addition, the Request For Quotation (RFQ) for the larger order for LUH RFQ has also been issued, one source stated.

HAL is in the process of responding to the RFQ and expects to conclude the related issues in one or two years, the source stated. Last November, the Defence Acquisition Council approved the procurement of an initial lot of 12 LUH, six each for the Army and the Air Force.

LCH Induction

In June, the Army raised its first LCH squadron in Bengaluru which will move to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Command once complete next year. “Of the 15 LSP on order, nine LCH have been produced. They are in acceptance stage,” HAL sources said.

As of now the Army is looking at acquiring around 111 LUH and 95 LCH, officials stated. Army sources had said that seven LCH units are planned for combat role in the mountains, with each having 10 helicopters. The IAF is also scheduled to raise its first LCH squadron in the next few months.

More Apache Attack Helicopters

The Cabinet Committee on Security had earlier given sanction for the procurement of 39 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters from the U.S.. Following this, IAF had inducted 22 Apaches procured under a deal signed in September 2015. The government had ruled that any further Apache procurements would go to the Army. In line with this, India signed a deal for six more Apaches at a cost of around $800 million in February 2020.

Deliveries which were to begin in the first half of 2023 have been delayed by around 10 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a defence official said. They are now scheduled to arrive in early 2024, an Army source said.

In addition, the Army is pushing the case for the remaining 11 Apaches of the 39 sanctioned, the official added. A senior official of aircraft manufacturer Boeing had recently confirmed that they were in talks with the Indian Army for additional Apaches.

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 Rudra-weaponised variants. Another 25 DHRUV MK-III are on order and scheduled to be inducted within two years. The Army operates around 190 Cheetah, Chetak and Cheetal helicopters and are in dire need of their replacement, while the IAF operates close to 140 of them.

In all, the IAF operates a wide mix of around 500 rotary platforms which includes around 90 Mi-17s, over 130 Mi-17V5s, over 70 DHRUV, including the weaponised variants, 22 Apaches, one squadron of Mi-35 attack helicopters and 15 CH-47F Chinook heavy lift helicopters.

In the utility helicopter category, the Army and the IAF together have a requirement of more than 400 helicopters and are meant to replace the vintage Cheetah and Chetak helicopters in service. This requirement was to be met jointly by the LUH and the 200 Ka-226T utility helicopters to be built with technology transfer from Russia.

However, the Ka-226T deal has been delayed by several years over indigenisation issues and with the LUH now ready and the geopolitical situation due to the war in Ukraine, the deal is all set to be dropped, officials had stated. The LUH has come up well, but will take time for sufficient numbers to come in, Army sources had stated.
 

samsaptaka

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