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.
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