Drones may be the biggest threats to national security, camouflaging themselves from radars and moving too fast for copters and too slow for a conventional fighter aircraft. But a drone hunter is round the corner, with the under-development Light Combat Helicopter Technology Demonstrator 3 (LCH TD-3) slated to be capable of hunting down Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).
The Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) for ALH is expected by this year-end and weapon tests are expected by October this year. UAV hunting is the many roles the ALH is expected to don, say test pilots.
Calling the programme a game changer, Wing Commander (Retd) Unni Pillai, Rotary Chief Test Pilot at HAL, said: “This is one of the first attack helicopters built for high-altitude warfare. There are only three countries in the world who need it – Pakistan, China and us. Both their programmes haven’t taken off.”
The LCH has already undergone a ‘cold weather soak’ in Leh where the chopper’s systems performance were tested in -20 degree temperatures. “We will now be taking the chopper to Jodhpur for a hot soak (high temperature),” Group Captain (retd) and test pilot Hari Nair said, adding that the chopper will be taken to Leh again in the summer to validate performance.
The mean machine will have an elaborate arsenal: 20mm Turret Guns, 70mm rocket-launchers and Air-to-Air missiles among others. It is also expected to include Air-to-Ground anti-tank missiles. The choice for this category is the third generation fire-and-forget’ anti-tank missile developed in DRDO – Nag.
The Nag version for LCH will be called Helina (Helicopter Nag). “This is under development. Once developed, we will test and integrate it into LCH,” Pillai said, adding: “The difficult part of the process is software integration. All the weapons were from different manufactures and it was difficult to integrate the software.”
The chopper will also have additional systems like anti-radar and sensors for high-precision operations.
Although it is intended to be manufactured primarily for the Indian Air Force, the Indian Army is trying to outrun IAF by ordering more than 110 helicopters, he added.
