Replacement of aircraft fleet of the defence forces including Cheetah and Chetak helicopters is reviewed from time to time keeping in view the operational requirements according to India’s MoD. This is a continuous process. The Government has planned replacement of these helicopters with Naval Utility Helicopter, indigenous Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) manufactured by HAL under “Buy (Indian-IDDM)” project and Russian built Ka-226T as “Buy & Make (Indian)”.
Initial Operational Clearance to LUH has been granted. Four Limited Series Production (LSP) LUHs (2 for Indian Army and 2 for Indian Air Force) would be manufactured by 2022-23 and eight (LSP) LUHs (4 for Indian Army and 4 for Indian Air Force) by 2023-24. This would be followed by manufacture of Series Production (SP) Helicopters by HAL.