Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurates HAL’s LCH production Hangar at Bengaluru

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday inaugurated Hindustan Aeronautics Limited's Light Combat Helicopters Production Hangar at Bengaluru. The Defence Minister also took to his official Twitter handle and informed about HAL acquiring many operational clearances for its LCA and LCH platforms.

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About Light Combat Helicopters

Designed and developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, LCH is a 5.5-ton class combat helicopter that is powered by two Shakti engines and inherits many technical features of the Advanced Light Helicopter. The features that are unique to LCH are sleek and narrow fuselage, tri-cycle crashworthy landing gear, crashworthy and self-sealing fuel tanks, armour protection and low visibility features which makes it agile and survivable.  LCH has the distinction of being the first attack helicopter to land in Forward Bases at Siachen, 4700 meters above sea level with 500kg load. 

So far HAL has built and flight-tested four LCH prototypes with over 1620 cumulative flights (1239 flight hours). The LCH had received Initial Operation Clearance (IOC) on August 26, 2017.

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"LCH is completely ready for operational induction and Helicopter Complex is fully geared up for the production of LCH," Mr. R. Madhavan CMD at HAL said. Helicopter Complex's CEO Mr. GVS Bhaskar also spoke about the new production hanger."The new production hangar will augment the LCH production capacity to reach peak production of 30 helicopters per year," he said. 

The techno Commercial Proposal for 15 Limited Series Production (LSP) helicopters has already been submitted by HAL in March 2018 and the order is awaited.

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