Light Combat Helicopter
Jodhpur: The Indian Air Force will formally commissioned home-made multi-role Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) at Jodhpur air force station in Rajasthan on October 3, days ahead of its annual raising day.
These choppers are capable of destroying enemy air defence and of being deployed in counter insurgency operations and combat search-and-rescue tasks.
The formal induction of the LCH comes months after the Cabinet Committee on Security, chaired by the Prime Minister, approved in March the procurement of 15 LCH Limited Series Production (LSP) at the cost of Rs 3,887 crore along with allied infrastructure sanctions worth Rs 377 crores.
Of the 15 helicopters being procured from the LSP, 10 are for the IAF and five for the Indian Army.
In another step towards becoming #AtmanirbharBharat, #CCS has approved procurement of 10 Light Combat Helicopters (LCH) for #IAF and 05 for #IA.
— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) March 30, 2022
A potent platform, #LCH has one of the highest operating altitudes among the combat heptrs in the world.https://t.co/MF0dzIHaj7 pic.twitter.com/yxVmsBx4mi
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari will attend the induction ceremony of LCH.
LCH has a narrow fuselage because of the tandem cockpit configuration for the pilot and co-pilot gunner.
It has a number of stealth features, armour protection, night attack capability and crash worthy landing gear for better survivability.
LCH is a 5.5-tonne class combat helicopter designed and developed by the Defence public sector undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said that the LSP version of the LCH has around 45 per cent indigenous content by value which will progressively increase to more than 55 per cent for Series Production Version.
A day ago, Indian Army has received first of five LCH helicopters from HAL in Bengaluru.
