Indian Multi Role Helicopter (IMRH)

[Rahul Singh]

May be better considering all goes well as planed and this IMRH is being exclusively developed for Indian armed forces only. If otherwise one problem that US will most certainly create will be in export arena. You can see P-8I and C-130J as shining examples of US promptness but you are missing the full story. There are many clauses in those finalized, yet unsealed deals which will create a lot of bitterness in coming time. BTW one example that stands taller than any is N-LCA. See the quote and decide yourself whether we can depend on US or not.

Naval LCA: US puts Lockheed Martin off Tejas flight path
The US government is, for the second time, squeezing American aerospace giant, Lockheed Martin, out of an important contract relating to India's Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).

 

[plugwater]

The Proposed Indian Multirole Helicopter (IMRH) Detailed

The Indian Multi-Role Helicopter (IMRH), which should hopefully soon begin development with the selection of an international technology partner, finally has a set of final specs (they underwent a change last year). The image you see above is the first diagrammatic representation of the helicopter from official material being prepared for documents that will follow up the invitations for Expressions of Interest (EoI) sent out last year.

HAL has proposed that the platform needs to have an all-up weight of 13 metric tons, a maximum speed of 275-km/h and a service ceiling of 22,000 ft. The Indian military wants the helicopter to have a payload capacity of 3,500-kg and range of 500-km at sea level. The IMRH platform is to sport a five-blade composite main rotor with a four-bladed composite tail rotor, twin turboshaft engines with dual full authority digital engine controls. The powerplants would be required to have a 30-minute dry-run capable transmission system. All IMRHs will have glass cockpits -- using equipment from Halbit Systems, DARE and Samtel.

The bid is stuck, however, at the EoI stage, with four companies wondering what is happening. Companies that have responded to HAL's invitation include Eurocopter (EC725 Caracal), Sikorsky (S-92A), Agusta-Westland (AW101) and Mil (Mi-17-IV).

Officially the IMRH mission spectrum includes troop movement, high-altitude air maintenance, offshore operations, heliborne and amphibious assault operations, anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare. An armed gunship version is also expected to be concurrently developed. Other proposed variants include civil transport, VVIP transport, and air-ambulance.

http://www.livefist.blogspot.com/

 

[plugwater]

LOH is a scale down version of dhruv and IMRH looks like a scale up version of dhruv.

why the HAL suck at designing stuff ?

 

[Kunal Biswas]

LOH is a scale down version of dhruv and IMRH looks like a scale up version of dhruv.

why the HAL suck at designing stuff ?

When one deign is successful in all three categories why to invest in new deign?
this save time and money..

 

[reddi_rahul]

Indian Medium Lift Helicoper

Hi,
Any progress in developing indigenous medium lift helicopter

 

[debasree]

its a good move by hal,but the speed they are implementing the on going projects ,i am very doubtfull,about the time table set by hal,2017-2018 may be the first prototype will come out ,if we r lucky enough,and if the millitary brass reject the design,then we will be back to squre one.

 

[Blackwater]

Hi,
Any progress in developing indigenous medium lift helicopter

not in my life time. Iam 28, i can live till 75 yrs so not in my life time.

 

[Virendra]

Thanks to the current mindset of our establishment, it is one of those delayed and screwed up projects.
Perhaps a N Modi style guy at the helm or Defence ministry could pull off the bottlenecks. But then it is even more less likely, what crap

Regards,
Virendra

 

[A.V.]

INDIAN MULTI ROLE HELICOPTER (IMRH) - Developments

• Co-Design and co-production of a 10 Ton class Medium Lift Helicopter is proposed to be taken with an international helicopter manufacturer to meet the requirement of the 3 Indian Defence Services. This approach is taken to shorten the development timeframe.
• The Helicopter will be powered by twin engines and will feature blade folding option for ship deck operations. The variant for Army/IAF will support Air assault, Air Transport, Combat logistic, Combat search & rescue and casualty evacuation operations. The naval variant will be developed for Anti Submarine Warfare and Anti Surface Vessel Strike roles

Dedicated sticky thread for its follow ups.

 

[Kunal Biswas]

 

[ALBY]

what are the possible armaments of multi roe helicopter and what will be the possible range with out refuelling and ceiling range it could attain?

 

[Kunal Biswas]

The End Product may look closely to MRH-90..

 

[Kunal Biswas]

what are the possible armaments of multi roe helicopter and what will be the possible range with out refuelling and ceiling range it could attain?

HAL has proposed that the platform needs to have an all-up weight of 13 metric tons, a maximum speed of 275-km/h and a service ceiling of 22,000 ft. The Indian military wants the helicopter to have a payload capacity of 3,500-kg and range of 500-km at sea level.

 

[Aditya Mookerjee]

I just loved the concept of the Mi-25 'Hind' helicopter. It had a no frills, and no non-sense approach to it's use. It could carry troops, and also be a gunship. The Longbow Apache, is a gunship, but it cannot carry troops. The Longbow is not required to be very maneuverable, but is meant to be an enemy destroyer. Why could it not be a troop carrier also?

 

[ace009]

I just loved the concept of the Mi-25 'Hind' helicopter. It had a no frills, and no non-sense approach to it's use. It could carry troops, and also be a gunship. The Longbow Apache, is a gunship, but it cannot carry troops. The Longbow is not required to be very maneuverable, but is meant to be an enemy destroyer. Why could it not be a troop carrier also?

As we have discussed many times in this forum - you can be really good at one thing - either you are really good at CAS/ gunship mode or you are really good at troop carrying. Mi-25, originally was designed to be a gunship - the troop carrying part was added later in the design.
The Apache is highly maneauverable - check out some of the videos posted by Ray in the Apache thread. It is also awesome in it's firepower and the Longbow radar is the best of the best. So, in short the mi-25 is good, but the Apache is better.

 

[weg]

The USA have abandoned the concept of using helicopters as gunships in the front line after what happened in Iraq. A entire wing (60 aircraft) were put out of action for the remainder of the war after one action where they sustained heavy ground fire. The Apache was, basically, useless although fine for killing unarmed civilians and lightly armed troops in uncontested area's.

 

[lemontree]

The helicopter gunship is a force multiplier that is to be used in anti-armour warfare and in maneuver warfare. They are here to stay.

Weg, there no instance in Iraq where 60 Apache's were put out of action by ground fire. Could you give us details so that we can cross check. Thanks.

 

[p2prada]

The helicopter gunship is a force multiplier that is to be used in anti-armour warfare and in maneuver warfare. They are here to stay.

Weg, there no instance in Iraq where 60 Apache's were put out of action by ground fire. Could you give us details so that we can cross check. Thanks.

From what I know, 274 Apaches were deployed for Desert Storm. 300 odd flying in other parts of the world were grounded for the duration of the war. The Apaches in Iraq supposedly flew only half hour each day, less than 5 times the planned sortie rate.

After the battle of Karbala in 2003, they decided to keep them around FEBA rather than risk the Apaches going in deeper. 33 Apaches were sent to Karbala, 32 returned and were grounded for over a month. They were sent against the Republican Guard Medina division and failed. Supposedly, the Americans underestimated resistance as it was a civilian area. I guess they did not know half the division was there.

Dump the Apache helicopter. - Slate Magazine

 

[JAISWAL]

Indian MoD says HAL's
indigenous Light Utility Helicopter
development programme
proceeding on approved time-
lines.
.
.
Twitter / Livefist Blog: Indian MoD says HAL's indi ...

 

[lemontree]

From what I know, 274 Apaches were deployed for Desert Storm. 300 odd flying in other parts of the world were grounded for the duration of the war. The Apaches in Iraq supposedly flew only half hour each day, less than 5 times the planned sortie rate.

After the battle of Karbala in 2003, they decided to keep them around FEBA rather than risk the Apaches going in deeper. 33 Apaches were sent to Karbala, 32 returned and were grounded for over a month. They were sent against the Republican Guard Medina division and failed. Supposedly, the Americans underestimated resistance as it was a civilian area. I guess they did not know half the division was there.

(a) The Apaches flew less in Iraq, due to maintenance issues in the desert. There is more wear-n-tare of the rotor blades dues to the sand. Thsi has got nothing to do with the gunship being a failure as a weapon of war.

(b) In the battle of Karbala, the Apaches faced a problem as the Medina Division had saturated the area with small arms fire. There were not just ADA weapons firing but civilians and troops raking the air with rifle fire. The choppers were flying low and got damaged, one had to force land. It was a bad day for the Apache unit that day. Period.

The gunship can hit its target from 6-8 km even before the target can see or hear the choppers.