FIRST PHOTOS! The Light Combat Helicopter In Flight!


Photos Courtesy Anantha Krishnan. M.

69 thoughts on “FIRST PHOTOS! The Light Combat Helicopter In Flight!”

  1. Great shiv!! you have made it with the pics of LCH ,as promised …please convey our thanks to Anantha krishnan .we miss his MSM like anything!!!!

  2. Even if this is a dummy gun, it needs to be mounted on the helicopter to generate realistic center of gravity and weight calculations.

  3. Shiv

    Great work! this baby is sweeet! Only immediate concern is the exposed cockpit. If I were a sniper, man would I have a clear shot of the two pilots.

  4. why this difference between HAL and CVRDE??? helicopters are much more complicated systems than tanks… to all those who say the Army/Armed forces are against Indigenous/DRDO equipment… show some SOLID results and we will always be with you… GREAT GOING HAL… THIS ONE WILL RAIN DEATH on the enemy SOON..

  5. I think the fuselage and the tail boom may the cause of that extra weight.it is a lot chunky for a combat helicopter's consideration.

    But anyways i don't think hal is going to make any changes in the design to reduce the weight but look to get lighter components.

  6. beautiful machine. not as stealthy as the aborted RAH-66 Comanche but definetely more so than anything else including what the Chinese have been flying around. External stores and non retractable landing gear will add to the RCS but rest of the fuselage is definitely stealthy. It will not evade a radar completely but may appear more like a small cheeta or a glider.
    My concern is the absence of any serious IR supression like seen on Comanche which could evade manpads.

  7. I can see a lot of untidy wiring..probably for the tail rotor controls and control surfaces.The wiring is just so "JUGAAD".Imagine a bullet hitting bulls eye on the wiring and the MFD going blank.

    My two cents….the chopper pilots are very very vulnerable to large cal round.The glass needs to be reduced and more armour must replace it.

    The RPG armed jihadi is going to aim for the cockpit for sure.This thing needs to reduce its size or forget hovering.

  8. looks better than anything the americans,russians,europeans or the chinese could make…..hope it performs that well too…keep up the good work scientists and engineers…

  9. thanks for great pics, now they have become part of my collection.

    Congrats to all, specially to the team of HAL which worked on LCH.

  10. im glad HAL hasn't rested on the laurels of the ALH….hope we weaponize and operationalize this chopper soon….the more indigenous the better….jai hind!

  11. 'If I were a sniper, man would I have a clear shot of the two pilots.'

    Too bad it's specifically designed to withstand up to 12.7mm rounds. As for the glass, the helicopter won't be flying that low so that you'll have a clear shot.

    Attack helicopters engage from miles away with long range AGMs and medium range rockets and auto cannon. Even when close, the angle of approach would not allow you to get such a shot.

  12. When they make a fully armed version that can take 16 or more ATGMs or 2 19-tube hydra 70 class rockets and 8 ATGMs. All this along with a considerable fuel load, electronic warfare systems, sensors and 30mm ammunition and armour, then I can die in peace.

    As long as you have a large number of these bad boys, you are guaranteed formidable and accurate fire support for troops on the ground.

    The quality and number of your tanks, APCs, ground troops etc. become secondary once you have a reliable attack helicopter in large numbers. Force multiplication indeed.

  13. OOOOHHHH Yeeeaaahahhh,

    HAL congratulations!
    Hope to see the full developed bird look even more deadlier.

    Fully loaded she's gonna be a mean one.

    Hope it will be the last scariest sight her enemies will see!!

  14. lot of critisizer found the cockpit is exposed too much. I would like to give u a small piece of info that.. this is just a aero model not the actual product ready to play a role. Defenitly its going to meet military standards. my fellow indians, we need some more patience.

    Did someone mentioned about RPGs, Rockets, and snipers threatning this gentle man?.. dudes this is a perfect male in this type. You cant even smell or hear this darling untill it reaches you couple of feets at a speed around 300 km/h in your late midnights. 🙂

  15. Anonymous said…

    beautiful machine. not as stealthy as the aborted RAH-66 Comanche but definetely more so than anything else including what the Chinese have been flying around. External stores and non retractable landing gear will add to the RCS but rest of the fuselage is definitely stealthy. It will not evade a radar completely but may appear more like a small cheeta or a glider.
    My concern is the absence of any serious IR supression like seen on Comanche which could evade manpads.

    _________________

    anon, it will have DIRCM active anti IR measures. rest easy ! 🙂

  16. The crew are "exposed"?

    I would say that the crew have unmatched visibility because of this cockpit design. Excellent for flying at low altitudes, especially at night, and manoeuvring in the mountains.

    Parth ji, this is a "light" combat helicopter, primarily meant for air defence against UAVs, helicopter escort, infantry support, etc. The capabilities you want will be there in the phoren chopper the IAF is looking to purchase 🙂

  17. Looks like the tail boom has been copied straight from the Dhruv ALH. Probably they share the same fuselage with some modifications to the fore of the helicopter to give it a more mean (thought it apperas funny here) look. What about engines, transmission and avionincs?

  18. guy 1st congrats to all , 2ndly its not a wire u see its red winder , when u make a rear rotor there is winder outside to keep balance wat u see in red is a swirl painted on it . now the body looks fine it shows it has 2 hidden bays, but what i worried abt is the powerful hal is know for making underpowered machines , the wheels are fixed with shock absorbers which are smaller than a motorbikes shock absorbers, thus now things which matter for me are

    power
    radar
    weapons system
    protection suite
    jammers
    top speed
    maneuverability
    radar signature

    and lets remember its a light combat helicopter thus cannot be compared to comanche or apache
    and usa itself is not buying comanche as they think is too expensive thus selling to india to make money , they r making a new super jet black hawks and Apache gen 3

  19. I have nothing against HAL…I am a strong proponent of the LCA and the LCH. But what is the commotion about? Are people here getting excited here vociferously because they managed to sell more T-90's and are feigning to encourage Indian military products? I do not hear Indian Military well wishers worried about the gradual demise of the LCA – read the Defence Minister's last statement in Lok Sabha re LCA. The IAF will not order more than 40 LCAs – now onto the MCA. And more excitement!

    The Chetak, Dhruv, LCH are not world class products and a lot of painstaking work needs to be done before they can qualify as reliable military machines. HAL has a miserable record of birds dropping like stones from the sky – Can we deny this?

    There are no glad tidings in this blog thread – The LCH is not a mission tough military helicopter yet. No amount of arguments regarding costing, art, patriotism, favoritism can alter reality. Anyone suggesting the LCH is better than US, Russian, European analogues is hallucinating and importantly imperils IAF Pilots.

    The news today is a good first step to an ultimate goal of self reliance in weapon manufacturing, also creating powrhouses in the aerospace industry. Any compromises in quality along the way even for nationalist reasons will doom the fledgling aerospace offshoots. The euphoria being experienced should not transform into dismay as our industries fail to operationalise prototypes. We must not cut corners in anything we make.

    Let me give an example. The T-90 is being consistenly vaunted as superior to Arjun, a major selling factor being its low weight. The Indian army touts the T – 90s manouverability etc always to the detriment of the Arjun. Some days ago the Russian Newspapers reported, that a 55 Tonne T-95 5th generation tank prototype was being unveiled this summer in a military show. Where is the weight advantage gone?

    Please, friends and brothers – let us all join together in constructing a great India – in Truth, Greatness, Excellence. Let us reward one's due share and effort and stridently shirk attempts to accomodate compromise alternatives.

    This is not to procrastinate or delay but to attain the twin objectives of quality and tardiness.

  20. Which idiots say that the landing gear is not retractable?

    Open your eyes a little more, before making any statements.

    The Landing gear clearly looks like it has hyrdaulic lifters, to recline and decline the equipment.

    Even the rears landing gear has that similar hydraulic post, with moveable attachment posts, which can swivel.

    It is retractable.

  21. 'Parth ji, this is a "light" combat helicopter, primarily meant for air defence against UAVs, helicopter escort, infantry support, etc.'

    Same role as the early Eurocopter Tiger. It gradually acquired a very impressive and mature A2G capability in later versions, second only to Apache I think.

    The dimensions are also similar to the Tiger and it will get 1200 shp/900 KW Shakti engines. It should manage a 1.5 ton or more of payload which is adequate for 16 ATGMs. Those wings need to be bigger, thicker and stronger that's all.

    Do you see any sense in developing an attack helicopter and not plan to have any sizeable A2G capability on it? UAV hunter, you got that from Prasun did you not?

  22. this is the prettiest attack helo ever… i have been staring at the pic for 1/2 an hour or so.

    the only issue that bothers me is that the weapons officer front-view at the back seat is not so great. most of the other attack helis have a much more elevated back seat. or it doesnt matter in todays world?

  23. Anonymous @ 8:45 PM

    How do you make something that cruises at 90-150kts at less than 200ft AGL stealthy? Commanche was a failed project from the start. Let's not compare pumpkin 🙂

  24. Oh! Monay Dinesha…..this is excellent work. Kudos for the photos & the bird looks awesome. HAL needs to be complemented for this great effort, and the color scheme looks apt for a machine of such firepower (intended).

  25. @ Parth

    You asking for too much out of LCH to have heavy weaponary. Also it wont fly at height to give you snipe shot.

    @ all others a few more pics at http://news.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/mar/31/slide-show-1-indias-attack-helicopter-takes-first-flight.htm

    Guys I do have to make some points about this bird

    1. The recon pod should have been below pilot 1, rather than top of nose.

    2. The wheels are non retractable in TD-1, may be you will get that in TD-2/3. Retractable means disappearing inside the helos body.

    3. pilot 1 and pilot 2 are almost sitting at same level. hope to see pilot 2 sitting a little higher in TD-2/3.

    4. Avionics will be clearer by TD-3.

    5. At 2.5 ton empty and 5.5 ton full its still the heaviest light combat helicopter, so need to cut down on weight and enhance RCS.

    If any one can add some more I would be happy.

  26. Parth ji, the Eurocopter weighs far more than the LCH, and is a full-fledged attack helicopter. The LCH's USP is that it is light, and can be used at high altitudes, quite different from that of the Tiger. But yes, I don't see why an Mk.2 version optimised for warfare in the plains and deserts on the Western border shouldn't have an impressive anti-tank capability.

    As for the LCH's role, my information comes from HAL's infoboard displayed at Defexpo 2010. A picture can be seen here. As for Prasun, let's just say he's one of a kind! 🙂

  27. Anonymous at 9:04,

    LCH does look like comanche to some extent. Just imagine it without the landing gear in the second pic and you will see the resemblance. above anon might be talking about the same.

  28. Joydeep and anonymous@11:37,

    The Eurocopter tiger and Mangusta and LCH fall under the 3 ton empty weight category, LCH being 2.5 due to its high altitude requirements.

    The payload(MTOW – Empty weight) for all three is roughly 3 tons. After fuel, this should leave at least 1-1.5 tons for weapons and the 20mm gun ammunition. A typical helicopter launched ATGM weighs 35-65 kilos (Spike/Hellfire/Nag/PARS-3LR). Eg: 4 Spike-ERs with the launcher weighs 187 Kgs. 187*4= 748 kgs. I bet you 20 quid this falls under the payload limit of the LCH(not in high altitude off course).

    Off course it requires certain structural/material changes to the wings to support the weight but even the Eurocopter Tiger had a different variant for the fire support role(Tiger UHT).

    This will obviously not be possible for high altitudes but is it just the Himalayas where the IA needs/uses attack helicopters?

    I see great export potential if it's priced right.

    And I did not say the thing about the sniper, that was me quoting someone else.

  29. Shiv,

    Nice post. Its good to hear good news about LCH,Arjun, Akash, etc..,

    But, I have a question for you. If DRDO can build sophisticated things like missiles, tanks etc. what actually stopping them to build us a artillery where we have a big gap.I know they build us IFG but why there is no news about building other type of artillery? Could you ask DRDO Guys about this?

    Thanks For your help…

  30. The bird looks good but the wheel really dont impress me they should go inside the hood to give some stealth.

    Any idea??

  31. Gentlemen-
    A few clarifications on some of the comments posted here-
    – The turreted gun is not a dummy,its very much real.
    – The cockpit glass area will be reduced after flight testing – to the optimal minimal.
    – All of you guys have got the weights wrong – the helicopter is capable of higher all-up-weight !
    – The landing gear is crashworthy – which mean it has been tested to absorb high crash loads and is very much sturdy.
    – The stub wings already are designed to carry substantial weaponload its been designed not to interfere with the rotor during hover, which is important for high altitude operations.

  32. A real beauty. I guess to increase fire power HAL should think of a 6 barrell high power gun to dispense armour piercing shells, like the A-10 Tank buster. Should also be made capable to launch short range air to air for counter heli strikes.
    Congrats HAl. You have delivered a real beauty.

  33. LOOK very good but need to cautious
    whether it will meet all the req. of our armed forces Including weight issue ??

  34. It's looking a lean machine but I wish that the undercarriage was retractable or able to fold! This design will add drag and it makes the whole thing look a bit flimsy.

    No doubt that I am sure that our designers and engineers must have thought about this all, it is just that What I would have wanted.

    KUDOS to all the men n women involved in LCH!!!

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