On March 28th, the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) signed a Rs 62,000 crore (about $7.3 billion USD) deal to procure 156 new Light Combat Helicopters (LCH) – or “Prachand” – attack helicopters from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
Under the contract, 90 Prachand attack helicopters will be allocated to the Indian Army (IA), while the Indian Air Force (IAF) will induct 66 units.
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On paper, the design and specifications of the LCH are directly comparable to any other attack helicopter of that size, including the Turkish Aerospace Industries T129 ATAK and the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) Z-10ME.
However, the LCH’s optimization for high-altitude operations is noteworthy. Neither the IAF nor IA would have inducted the platform had it not been a credible solution for Kashmir, Ladakh, and other such environments. Both the IAF and IA are rigid in how they define and stick to their respective requirements. Had the LCH failed, the Indian MoD would not have signed off on such a major contract. Instead, the IA and IAF would have pushed HAL to improve the system.
This order will likely push the Pakistan Army (PA) to focus on three key areas: First, it will continue expanding and improving its air defence capabilities. Second, the PA will likely reprioritize the procurement of new attack helicopters to both supplant the AH-1F/S Cobra and, potentially, expand its own rotary attack fleet. Third, there may be a greater focus on the threat of IA integrated battleground (IBG), which will see a significant capability boost via a large attack helicopter fleet.
The first area – i.e., air defence investments – could see a growth in short-range air defence systems (SHORAD), particularly mobile systems like the FM-90. The LCH will pose a threat to the PA’s armour and infantry formations as well as artillery and rocket positions. The latter could drive further medium-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) procurement, potentially leveraging domestic programs like the LoMADS or FAAZ SL. Overall, air defence investment would constitute a responsive move, one aimed at mitigating the impact of the LCH.
The second area – i.e., prioritizing attack helicopter procurement – would match or emulate India’s procurement. However, the goal is not to match India unit-to-unit, nor to somehow leverage attack helicopters to directly counter the LCH. The point of new attack helicopters is to expand the PA’s own CAS coverages, particularly in high-altitude and high-temperature desert terrain. It requires a relatively large fleet to support both conventional operations and counterinsurgency (COIN) roles.
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