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Defence & Security
Mahesh

04/10/22 15:25 PM IST

Light Combat Helicopter inducted into Indian Air Force

In News 
  • The indigenous Light Combat Helicopter (LCH), capable of destroying enemy air defence, conducting counter insurgency strikes and much more, was formally inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) at the Jodhpur air base.
  • The helicopter will be called ‘Prachand’, which means fierce.
Features of Helicopter
  • The LCH is the only attack helicopter in the world which can land and take off at an altitude of 5,000 meters with a considerable load of weapons and fuel, meeting the specific requirements laid out by the Indian Armed Forces.
  • The government sanctioned the LCH project in October 2006, and HAL was tasked to develop it.
  • The HAL’s Rotary Wing Research and Development Centre, which had already worked on the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruva and its weaponised version ALH Rudra, embarked upon the project.
  • The LCH has been designed as a twin-engine, dedicated combat helicopter of 5.8-ton class, thus categorised as light.
  • It features a narrow fuselage and tandem — one behind the other — configuration for pilot and co-pilot.
  • The copilot is also the Weapon Systems Operator (WSO).
  • While LCH inherits many features of the ALH, it mainly differs in tandem cockpit configuration, making it sleeker. It also has many more state-of-art systems that make it a dedicated attack helicopter.
Significance
  • LCH has the maximum take-off weight of 5.8 tonnes, maximum speed of 268 kilometers per hour, range of 550 kilometers, endurance of over three hours and service ceiling — the maximum density altitude to which it can fly — of 6.5 kilometres.
  • The helicopter uses radar-absorbing material to lower radar signature and has a significantly crash-proof structure and landing gear.
  • A pressurised cabin offers protection from nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) contingencies.
  • The helicopter is equipped with a countermeasure dispensing system that protects it from enemy radars or infrared seekers of the enemy missiles.
  • As far as weapons systems are concerned, a 20 mm turret gun, 70 mm rockets and air-to-air missile systems are onboard.
Source- Indian Express 

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