Designed and developed with seamless airborne operations in support of ground troops at high altitudes and holding the distinction of the first attack helicopter to land on Siachen, the maiden flight of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) took place on 29 March 2010 marking successful culmination of three years of design and development efforts by Rotary Wing Research & Design Centre (RWRDC) of the Helicopter Complex and appropriately named ‘Tiger Bird’ perhaps inspired from exceptional high agility and the design painted on the prototype.
Projected to meet the requirements of the Indian Air Force and the Indian Army (they are likely to order 65 and 114 units respectively) plus significant export potential, the LCH is being developed as a dedicated attack helicopter derived from the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv and to be fitted with weapons and special mission systems and having a crashworthy wheel landing gear. In addition to the primary anti-armour role the rotary-wing platform will play the critical roles of escort to special heliborne operations (SHBO), support of Combat Search & Rescue (CSAR) operations, and armed aerial scouting duties.
The LCH was declared ready for production in February 2020 with a LCH Production Hangar established at HAL's Helicopter Division in Bengaluru. The new hanger will "augment capacity to reach the peak production of 30 helicopters per year", stated HAL Chairman and Managing Director R. Madhavan in an Indian defence ministry statement.
The LCH inherits many technical features of the Dhruv including its rotor system transmission, power plant, hydraulics, IADS and avionics. The features that are unique to LCH are its sleek and narrow fuselage, exterior covered by canted flat panels to minimise Radar Cross Section (RCS), an integrated dynamic system, including a hinge less main rotor and bearing less tail rotor, which works in conjunction with an anti-resonance isolation system to dampen vibrations, tri-cycle crashworthy landing gear, tandem cockpit, self-sealing fuel tanks, and aerofoil shaped stub wings for weapons, armour protection, Nuclear, Biological, Chemical (NBC) protection and low visibility features which make the LCH “lethal, agile and survivable.” Notably the flight controls and hydraulics of Dhruv have been redesigned for the LCH. An indigenous Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS) have been designed by HAL. The helicopter is powered by two HAL/Turbomeca Shakti-1H1 turboshaft engines fitted with Infra-Red (IR) suppressors, each of which can generate up to 871-kW and can run for up to 3,000-hours without maintenance. It features a Full Authority Digital Electronic Control (FADEC) system, which decreases the work of the pilot by automatically counting engine cycles. The LCH has a cruise speed of 260 km/h, a maximum speed of 275 km/h and a climb rate of 12 m/s to a service ceiling of 6,500 m. LCH has an operational range of 550 km and a ferry range of 700 km.
Fitted with a chin-mounted, twin-barrel M621 20 mm cannon on a Nexter THL-20 turret integrated to a Helmet Mounted Sight (HMS), LCH armament will include Belgian 70-mm rockets and air-to-air/air-to-ground missiles and Laser Guided Bombs (LGB) on the weapon stations. MBDA PARS3 and indigenous Helina with a range up to 7 km are the favoured anti-armour weapon. MBDA Mistral-2 Air-to-Air Missiles (AAM) are carried to ensure self-protection during scouting operations and to decimate hostile helicopters and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).
The helicopter would have day/night targeting systems for the crew including the helmet mounted sight and an Elbit Compact Multi-Purpose Advance Stabilisation System (CoMPASS) electro-optic/infrared turret (being license built in India by Bharat Electronics Limited) consisting of CCD camera/ third generation 3-5 µm Forward-Looking Infra-Red (FLIR)/Laser Range Finder (LRF)/Laser Designator (LD). The LRF and LD facilitate measurement of range to the target and guidance to the laser guided missiles respectively. The Digital Video Recorder would enable recording of the vital mission for debriefing purposes. The turret gun skewing is controlled by the Helmet Mounted Sight (HMS) of the gunner, who along with the pilot receives adequate inputs from Multi-Function Displays (MFD). The digitally camouflaged LCH is also fitted with a Saab Self-Protection Suite consisting of Radar/Laser warning receivers and Missile Approach Warning Systems (MAWS) and Countermeasures dispensing system. It is planned to integrate IR/Laser missile jammers on the helicopter. Another addition is a Data Link for Network-Centric Warfare (NCW) operations facilitating transfer of the mission data to the other airborne platforms and ground stations operating in the network, thus facilitating force multiplication. The LCH is designed for low detection (visual, aural, radar and infrared) and includes armour protection of critical areas.
A 30 minute dry running capability of the gear box is a built in-feature to survive after any ballistic hit to the transmission system. Crashworthiness features are built into the wheel landing gear and main structure while dual redundant systems also enhance effectiveness of helicopters in the battlefield environment. The performance features of the LCH including rate of climb, cruise speed, service ceiling are comparable with those of contemporary helicopter types such as the Agusta A129 Mangusta and Tiger. Development costs of the LCH have been “relatively low” compared to that of other helicopter types in its class, ensuring lower unit costs. “LCH design is optimised to ensure ease of maintenance with improved reliability of all the onboard systems to keep the life cycle operating costs low as well,” stated a HAL designer.
Sayan Majumdar