India signs copter deal with Israeli company

[mysterious]

India signs copter deal with Israeli company

New Delhi: Amid growing defence cooperation between India and Israel, the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has entered into an agreement with the Israeli Aviation industries (IAI) for joint marketing of its advance light helicopters (ALHs) christened as Dhruv.

Terming Dhruv the market leader in the 4.5 to 5 tonne class of helicopters, HAL Chairman NR Mohanty said the IAI would market the ALHs worldwide.

“We have Israeli avionics and Indian helicopters to form an unbeatable team in the world market,” Mr Mohanty said, according to a report.

“To herald our new partnership with the Israelis, we have signed a deal to sell an advance light helicopter to the IAI,” the HAL chairman said.

He said the company had also sent a batch of four helicopters to Chile for evaluation, adding, “We are hopeful of bagging the order”. APP

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_30-6-2004_pg7_47

So now I see that Dhruv is not entirely an indeginous phenomenon but infact a close cooperative output between Indian and Isreali defense industries. :smokingc:

[P.A.F]

most of it is indian :smokingc: but still isreal is just gonna kit it up a little and put it in the international market.

[mysterious]

Isreali avionics would obviously add a lot to the value and reliability of that copter I'd say.

[srirangan]

Hmm.. this is really old news, I first heard it in the beginning of 2003.

[P.A.F]

id say that without isreali avionics the copter will hardly be able to be sold to other countries. :smokingc:

[srirangan]

sure why not! :roll

[mysterious]

P.A.F., agreed!

[gf0012-aust]

They're a nice little helicopter, a good utility helo. Ideal for CSAR as well.

[srirangan]

It's kinda unique. The only helo that can be used for transport in the high himalayas.

[adsH]

if it can effectively lift cargo in the Himalayas then i am impressed!! but last time i saw a pic of it it was an attack and recon heli something that resembled the cobra, and is it of composite construction it also had a lazer site designator mounted in-front of it, but i think this news is really old!!

[Aussie Digger]

I've read that India actually rejected this Helicopter for it's multi-mission helicopter requirement, and is now seeking alternative helicopters from a foreign source, (Airforces Monthly July edition, Asia-Pacific news section, page 18). It is now looking at the Agusta A119 Koala, Bell 407, Eurocopter AS 550 C3 Fennec, Kamov Ka-226 and Kazan Ansat. India apparently has a requirement for up to 200 high altitude multi-mission Helicopters, to be acquired from next year onwards. Interesting that it evaluated and rejected an indigenous design. Foreign buyers couldn't be too impressed by that...

[srirangan]

I can confirm that the ALH Dhruv is being used for sending supplies in the Siachen glacier region.

[gf0012-aust]

They're being used by the navy for various work. I wonder if it was an altitude related problem that caused them to reject it?

[Aussie Digger]

There must be some serious design faults if this helicopter was designed for this mission and was then rejected by it's primary customer... I'm thinking the altitude problem must be the reason, though I wasn't aware the Bell 407 or Fennec helo's were dynamic performers at high altitude? Shows what I know I guess...

[gf0012-aust]

I guess we'll have to wait and see if Gremlin gets to this topic..

[lalith prasad]

the dhruv was first tested with french avionics and conventional dials so it is not necessarily limited to israeli systems .the thing about alh being rejected is old news it has been cleared for operation at siachen .with the french engine .however the shakti engine is being developed jointly by india and france for this purpose(ardiden or tm333 2c2 in france).it has acheived 19000+feet altitude based on this the lch is being developed there were some reports in acig.org that its cockpit resembles that of the latest variant of cobra. the a119 and fennec are being evaluated to replace the chetaks(alouette3 ) and lamas of the iaf for indian airforce in the utility ,training,armed scout,and coin roles.the alh was designed with mbb assistance particularly in the transmission.

[XEROX]

yeah, i heard the shakti engine is 20% more powerful then the current engines

[lalith prasad]

about as powerfull as the cts800.dhruv's original engine.