48 thoughts on “Weaponised ALH-Dhruv Christened ‘Rudra’, God Of The Tempest, The Hunt”

  1. And this is what the Army’s website (at: http://indianarmy.nic.in/Site/FormTemplete/frmTempGaurdsOffHome.aspx?MnId=M1YqbUPxvIo=&ParentID=pt1+ZmXUE8Y=) says about the Dhruv/Rudra: The Army's 'weapons system integrated' helicopters will feature a chin-mounted, three barrel 20mm gun from Lockheed Martin and four pylons – each having two hard points – which will enable it to carry eight Nag anti-tank guided missiles, four 68mm or 70mm rocket pods or four tube-launched air-to-air missiles. Of these, the Lockheed Martin-built gun and Nag/HELINA are still nowhere in sight. No matter what fancy names are given, unless and until these above-mentioned weapons are procured and integrated, the ‘Rudra’ won’t be able to go hunting for even a squirrel.

  2. ALH doesn't look like designed for slithering. As only 2 persons can climb down at a time, it would be sitting duck until all passengers disembark.

  3. will this ALH Weaponised be ever used by airforce or navy in near future …..or will we see just the name of it ….?????

  4. @Prasun,thanks for the brilliant insight!Its quite a revelation to some of us that weapon systems not integrated or not yet procured do not shoot!And of -course,the Indian Army too would benefit;but for your revelation they were planning to induct a totally untested,weaponless helicopter!!Briiliant!

  5. Who the hell comes with these names? Can they not use some names which others besides Indians can spell. Rudra, Dhruv, Agni, Prithvi, Kali, what else next? Durga, Vishu, Govind, … Feel like some nut job hardcore Hindu is naming these! What are we matching up against?

  6. LOL Anon @ 11:56 slink back to porki land or wherever you come from!Now you gonna tell us how to name Indian weapons!Hindu?? All I can see is an ignorance of Indian culture and language.'Dhruv' means the pole star,'Agni' is fire,Kali is the acronym for Kilo Ampere Linear Injector.'Prithvi'is the Earth(not Prithvi Raj Chauhan as pakis think it is and who went on to name their missiles after afghan plunderers!!!)Rudra is fierce, afrce conquering evil.And if the names happen to be of Hindu Gods ,what the hell is wrong in that.Our weapons are named in accordance with our composite culture.

  7. SO you mean to say that we need to have secular names like XYZ , Table , Chair.. I think if I start looking from your eyes than these English names will sound like christian names .. Your comment was hilarious.

  8. what about otobreda, merkava,shuka…or you expect easier names like is, was, and.
    If something is made for India(and may not be made by us), it defenitely should have Indian names. if any buyer is not interested in the export because of the name, either they dont buy or rename after buying.

    Agree with you that our forces should name weapons also in line with relegious diversity of the country. In many times it is done but lacking in missile/combat vehicles conspicously. May be those names will become controversial like the smiling buddha and arihant (some scholars were negative to the idea of naming destructive weapons with name of peace professing saints).

  9. @Anon @11.56 –

    Why are you bringing in religion into this you stupid pseudo-secularist ?What names do you suggest ? Muhammed-bin Qasim, Mahmud Ghazni etc ?? These names are associated with Indian culture and hence their naming you dimwit.

  10. @Anon in 11.56

    we are not matching up against anybody…just reflecting our indigenous culture in the names for our indigenous weapons…dont just cry like being afflicted with a right-wing-Hindus-coming-after-you paranoia.

  11. The names of Indian weapons are enough to scare off any enemy without actually working!They should be translated into chinese mandarin and urdu to be fully "effective" and ready for in(tro)duction!.

  12. If India is serious about preparing its defence against China and Pakistan, it must induct at least 140-170 AH-60D Apache Longbow Block III Attack Helicopters with Israeli Elisra Seraph self-protection system, which includes the SPS-65 missile warner and SPJ-40 radar jammer. Need to equip these helicopters with fire and forget AGM-114D Longbow Hellfire air-to-surface missile manufactured by Lockheed Martin & Boeing.

    These variants of Apache are still being inducted in the US Army. "Rudra" is simply not going to be as armoured and agile as the Apache. We need to prepare for an upcoming Chinese attack on the Arunachal Pradesh. They have almost completed all the infrastructure to move 35 Fully Equipped Divisions in less than a month. Raksha Mantri Anthony open your eyes, do not let 1962 happen again.

  13. Anon@10:04,which helicopter do you know where an entire complement of troops slithers down simultaneously or does not hover till the troops have not exited the helo. Abseiling or fast-roping is mostly done on single lines to prevent entanglements and also a minimum gap of at least 3-4 meters is kept between slithering troops to prevent collisions.Helicopter drops by slithering are considered hazardous and are as far as possible not done in hot areas,but at a distance. Survival chances are drastically reduced the closer one hovers to a hot zone.

  14. " Feel like some nut job hardcore Hindu is naming these! What are we matching up against?
    "

    We are matching against Ghauri, Hatf etc.

    Regards,
    -C

  15. may be anon expects names like : AMAR AKBAR ANTONY" and :" JHON JANI JANARDHAN " to reflect our sickuler state of mind and thinking.

  16. hmmm… some relevant info about rudra from prasun, yet everyone wants to reply to the troll @11:56pm.

    I guess leaders also see this defensive characteristic in Indian society and know how best to distract them.

    @prasun since the 68mm/70mm rockets are available for the rudra how accurate are they? Is there any timeline when the other two[gun & helinas] are expected to be integrated ?

  17. We should actually name them after the rivers of India ..like Ganga, Yamuna, Kaveri, Godavari, Neela, Bhavani, Damodar, Brahmaputra, JKosi, Sone, Ghaghara etc etc 🙂

  18. People ,

    A Mig has crashed and we are discussing names. Call it Johnny Walker or Majnu , the IAF is slowly becoming history. MR. Browne has left the responsibility to a Inshallah , Antony is starching his dhoti, MMS is awaiting the Rajmata while changing the baba's diapers and supping with commies, the BJP is still clamouring for their share of the 'Bofors' loot,if any,the commies are absolutely overjoyed ,the media is waiting like vultures in a parsi funeral home to gnaw at any defense modernisation, again if any, the civil society have their heads up an "Annas" posterior orfice and the blogs are acting sanctimoniously intellectual .

    God help my India.

  19. @Som 6:44 you sure you are visiting the right blog for you?Ever try knowing the name and classes of Indian Navy Ships?Almost all the rivers you have mentioned have ships named after them.

  20. The Rudra is not going to be inducted as a solely Close Air Support weapon.. Its functions will more likely be as a armed utility helicopter… similar to the hueys operated by the US army and marines that are armed with various weapons like door mounted mini guns…. but I think 2 points should be made

    1, The Army and Airforce tender for light utility helicopter can and should be filled by the Dhruv or the Rudra or a combination

    2 Light Combat helicopter dosent look like it can fill the gap in the armed forces for close air support aircraft and MoD should fast track the tender for Apchae or the Russian bird.

  21. @Narendra Wrong. USA's Hueys never had ATGM or AA missiles while Rudra carries them. It is way ahead of any variant of Hueys.

  22. [email protected], NO it sums up you!The one's who take the lazy option out,this is bad,he is that,they are bad,everything is going down the drain etc etc.There are many many who continue to do their work, perform and work on,because,there are many many who realize moaning,groaning and summoning the angels of doom is the easiest option.All that is needed is at least I work on to the best that I can,the rest will come about.NO nation has gone ahead with moaners,groaners and the harbingers of doom!!!

  23. So whatz the next? Indra, Nag, .. oops forget i they are already named. How does US names its stuff, not Jesus, not Moses, but F-22, F-16,which makes more sense, or even how Russia names them Su-30, Mig-29, etc or how does China names Deng, J-11, J-10, etc.

    Before getting into bangwagon of great Hindu culture, use common sense. It just a plane or a missile, not the fight of Good vs Evil!

    Again for argument, if keep the mythical God names for stuff, what are you going to say? Nag went to bite the missile, but missed, Indra was fired next, but that failed, then finally Prithvi was launched and we got it. Govind missed its target, while Vishu got it target and finally Shiv got the revenge. Also, 20 years, now we will say Govind is pretty low tech and need to be replaced by "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" or "kaho na pyar hai".

    Are you guys, even crazy, Religion may be good for internal consumption and not for geopolitics. So whatz next, guys? Brahma, Nakul, Sahadev, finally, I forget we missed Shivaji, Shambaji and Peshwa, Balaji and Ambaji just in case.

  24. Anon @ 3:25,
    At the risk of feeding a troll!What is so religious about 'Nag' ie Cobra.There are US,German and many weapon systems named cobra.Many Greek, norse,roman divine or mythological figures have weapons named after them. ever heard of nike, hercules, thor,titan,Viking.Wondered what hell fire is inspired from or apache or cheyyene or Comanche. Wonder what Topol M missile means.

  25. [email protected]

    This is ridiculous, even commenting and saying the obvious, amount calling names, really pathetic! When have Pakistan, a failed state became our benchmark for naming missiles and planes (as some one up in the comments above suggested!). You come up with Apaches, Cobra, but those are just common names, their code names are AH-64 and AH-1 respectively. For your reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_United_States_military_aircraft

    Please look at codenames for all the aircrafts.

    Personally, I am not aware of a single weaponry made largely by India having a code name, but long list of religiously tinted names starting with Marut…Even Brahmos largely developed with Russian assistance is named so.

    Whom am I preaching here? People are more interested in calling names, but rather thinking through! No wonder we see Ayodhya burning, Orissa attacks on Christians, attacks on Hindus in Andhra by Dalit Christians, people fighting over castes, hating some one for their skin color, etc. Our country is twisted in religious flavor so much that politics and people behavior are motivated that their deep founded insecurities projected by the labels they use.

    Remember, India is successful as a country (with all its flaws) because of the secular nature. See the neighbor next door to see what happens when you start labeling anything and everything on religion and base everything on being NOT-India.

    I rest my case, probably I talking to people with more religious fervor, that they see jungle but not the tree!

  26. Bhailog ,

    I do not understand what is this combination going to give us. From what I hear , the forces are desparately short of :-

    a ) Light chopper to replace the cheetah's but it is nowhere in sight,

    b) Modern medium chopper to replace the Mi 8/17 but it is nowhere in sight,

    c) Combat chopper to repalace the Mi 35 but the evaluation never ends,

    d) Heavy lift chopper to replace the Mi 26 but the evaluation also never ends,

    d) Medium anti sub / utility chopper for Navy , but we still dream on ,

    Is the Dhruv and its chacha / mamas the solution to all these requirements. If yes, to theek hai;
    If not, then what are the forces doing to force these issues ; and kindly do not mention HAL or DRDO or imports or bribes . We simply need the machines and they are not available. So what is happening ?

  27. @Anon,11:09,every major helicopter manufacturer has an offering of an armed helicopter.Dedicated attack helicopters are expensive, specialized and they can never be enough. What are very useful are armed versions of utility helicopters which are cheaper,can be used for multiple purposes and serve useful fire support role when required.The Bell OH-58 Kiowa, Eurocopter AS550 Fennec,Westland Lynx,Mi-8/17,Agusta 109 are just a few of the many around.In fact most armed forces of the world rely on them as a lot of forces around the world cannot afford or require specialized and dedicated attack helicopters.

  28. @Anon 11:09 and 5:16,if you check the world wise users of dedicated attack helicopters,it will be seen that worldwide barely a dozen countries in total use dedicated attack helicopters.The majority of armed forces due to budgetary reasons or requirements use Armed versions of utility helicopters.Even armed forces with dedicated attack helicopters use find use of armed versions of utility helicopters very relevant and important and all have such versions in their forces.

  29. Bhailog,

    This me again. Thanks for your replies – they are very educating. My point was slightly different.Our needs , in my opinion , are varied and vast considering the geography and the enemies across the spectrum – and the powers that be are only concentrating on one item -the Dhruv- which does not figure anywhere in the needs of the forces. I believe that the emphasis has to be on immediate acquisition of those choppers which are needed as of now – like the Fennec for the mountains , Mi 26N/Apache for the strike formations and setting up production facilities for other long term needs like Mi17 /Mi26 replacements all of which shall take time. Instead the trials go on and on and the pilots keep dying flying these relics.The Dhruv is perhaps the singular success story after a long time. But we are over flogging this ignoring the other needs.
    Thanks again.

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