India joins Elite group of Countries with indegenously developed LCH

LCH model on display

The maiden flight of the indigenously manufactured Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) on Sunday heralded India's entry into the select group of countries capable of developing their own combat helicopters.

The LCH, manufactured by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, took to the skies on Sunday in the presence of the defence secretary R K Singh, vice-chief of air staff, air marshal P K Barbora, chairman HAL, Ashok Nayak and senior officials of defence ministry and the forces. Chief test pilots Unni Pillai and Hari Nair put up a spectacular flying display of the LCH at the HAL airport in the city.


The LCH is a dedicated attack helicopter featuring a narrow fuselage and a tandem seating for the pilot and co-pilot. The machine is designed for low detection (reduced visual, aural, radar and infra-red signatures) and has crashworthy landing gear for better survivability. The hingeless rotors and the powerful Shakti engines enable the easy manoeuvring of LCH even with weapons.

The other interesting feature of the LCH is the chin-mounted canon along with the helmet mounted sighting system, which gives the pilot the capability to look and fire at targets around the aircraft. An advanced sensor suite consisting of CCD camera, forward looking infra-red imaging technology and laser range finder, facilitates target acquisition in all weather conditions. The helicopter would be fitted with a data link for network-centric operations facilitating the transfer of mission data to the other airborne platforms and ground stations operating in the network, thus facilitating the force multiplication.

With these features, the LCH is expected to play a major role in air defence against slow moving aerial targets, destruction of enemy air defence operations, escort to special heliborne operations, support of combat search and rescue operations, anti-tank role and scout duties.