News Source: 8ak
HAL got compliments from all quarters today with the successful, official maiden flight of the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) in Bangalore today. With some good engineering and commonalities with the Advanced Light Helicopter platform, it took HAL just 40 months to develop the LCH project which started in 2006.
The 5.8 tonne LCH inherits many technical features of the ALH Dhruv which includes the hingless-rotor system, transmission, Shakti engines, hydraulics, IADS, weapons system and avionics. The features that are unique to LCH are sleek & narrow fuselage, tri-cycle crashworthy landing gear, tandem cockpits, crash-worthy & self sealing fuel tanks, aero foil shaped stub wings for weapons, armour protection, NBC protection and low visibility features.
LCH is fitted with a 20mm turret gun which will be controlled by a helmet-mounted sighting system. Besides Air-to-Air missiles, it is believed that DRDO's Helina (NAG) anti-tank guided missile will also be integrated with this platform giving it significant air-to-ground attack capability.
The helicopter would have day/night targeting systems for the crew including the Helmet pointed sight and Electro-optical pod consisting of CCD camera/FLIR/laser range finder/laser designator. The LRF & LD facilitate measurement of range to the target & guidance to the Laser guided Missiles respectively. A Digital Video Recorder would enable recording of the vital mission for debriefing purposes.
The LCH is fitted with Self Protection Suite consisting of Radar/Laser Missile warning systems and Countermeasures dispensing system. It is also planned to integrate IR/Laser missile jammer on the helicopter.
The helicopter would be fitted with a Data Link for Network-centric operations facilitating transfer of the mission data to the other airborne platforms and ground stations operating in the network, thus facilitating force multiplication. It has a sophisticated mission system called the Target Acquistion and Designing System (TADS).
The machine is designed for low detection (visual, aural, radar & infra-red) and includes armour protection of critical areas. A 30 minute dry running capability of the gear box is a built in feature to survive after a ballistic hit to the transmission system. Crash-worthiness features are built into the wheel landing gear & structure. Dual redundant systems also enhance the effectiveness of the helicopter in the battlefield environment.
HAL claims that the performance features of the LCH i.e. rate of climb, cruise speed, service ceiling are on par, if not better than other helicopter in its class like A129/Tiger and with bigger dedicated combat helicopters like Apache, Kamov 30 or Mi-35.
The development team included members of HAL, Indian Air Force, the certification authorities CEMILAC, DGAQA and the various suppliers of the onboard systems. LCH prototype development was based on the concept of design, ground testing and fabrication concurrently. The design & manufacturing was carried-out using the state-of-art C.A.D/C.A.M facilities which obviated the requirement of an interface check rig. The ground testing included wind-tunnel testing, landing gear drop tests, and shake test. A mock up was also built for evaluation by the Indian Air Force.
Besides the Indian Air Force, the helicopter has also impressed the Army Aviation Corp who could use it in a surveillance role as they await the Light Observation Helicopter which will be a single engine version for high altitudes. Operational clearance is expected in 2012 with EcoTimes reporting that induction will begin in 2014.
