New Delhi – The Indian Army can finally boast a stronger helicopter in its fleet with an upgraded version of the ‘Dhruv’ Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) which was handed over to them recently. These new helicopters incorporate a new powerful engine which will enable take-off and landing at a high altitude with ease and help to carry operations in the mountainous terrains of Jammu and Kashmir.
According to state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), five new ‘Dhruv’ ALH developed by them were handed over to the Indian Army. The upgraded ‘Dhruv’ ALH Mark III have a stronger ‘Shakti’ engine developed by HAL and the French firm Turbomeca. The five new helicopters will be used for varied operations in the Siachen area of Jammu and Kashmir. Since the current fleet of Chetak and Cheetah helicopters are being overworked and cannot withstand the altitude and weather posed by Siachen, the ‘Dhruv’ ALH Mark III is the need of the hour for the Indian Army.
The Dhruv ALH is a multi-role helicopter developed and manufactured by HAL and has also been exported to Nepal, Peru, Ecuador and Israel, and is on order by several other countries for both military and commercial uses.
For a long time, the Indian Army refused to accept any Dhruv ALH until HAL fixed a problem that was restricting the Dhruv’s cruising speed to 250 kilometres per hour, significantly short of the 270 kilometres per hour that HAL specifications promise. Even after deploying the new ‘Shakti’ engine in the ALH, there was another technical snag which was limiting the performance of the Dhruv ALH. With the help of Italian aerospace propulsion major, Avio, the helicopter’s Integrated Dynamic System, or IDS, which transfers power from the Shakti engines to the helicopter rotors, was found to be the root cause of the malfunction.
With the major shortage of helicopters with the Indian Armed forces, Indian Armed Forces were forced to accept the sub-standard Dhruv ALH. HAL has itself implemented six changes inside the IDS and 30 helicopters have been flying with these changes for some 400 hours and there have been no signs of malfunction.
HAL was also criticised earlier by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which indicted in its report that as opposed to the envisaged indigenisation level of 50 per cent, about 90 per cent of the value of material used in each Dhruv ALH helicopter was procured from foreign suppliers. It also points out that 74 helicopters supplied to defence customers are flying with concessions and adds that HAL failed to consider infrastructural imbalances.
According to sources, there have been constant delays due to design changes by Indian Armed forces as well as overly eager nature of HAL to operationalise the Dhruv ALH as soon as possible. The order for 159 helicopters was placed on HAL in 2009 to be supplied by 2015 by the Indian Armed Forces. Of these, 83 were utility helicopters called Dhruv Mark 3 used for transporting people. The other 76 were Mark 4 helicopters or Dhruv WSI (Weapon Systems Integrated) and they would be fitted with cannons, rockets, missiles and electronic warfare equipment.
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