India's indigenously designed and developed Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) has successfully carried out a test-firing of an air-to-air missile against a moving target, state-run HAL said on Thursday. Speaking to Onmanorama, HAL sources said the missile that was fired was the French-built Mistral, a short-range weapon that uses an infra-red seeker to home in on its target.
HAL said the tests were conducted from the integrated test range at Chandipur in Odisha recently.
The LCH, which is based on the indigenously built HAL Dhruv, was designed and developed by HAL's Rotary Wing Research & Design Centre (RWRDC). HAL CMD R. Madhavan said this was the first time in the country that a helicopter had carried out an air-to-air missile engagement.
Madhavan said "None of the helicopters with the military services in the country has demonstrated such a capability. With this, LCH has successfully completed all weapon integration tests and is ready for operational induction." Other weapons on the LCH include a 20mm turret gun and 70mm rockets, the firing trials of which have already been completed last year, HAL said.
HAL claims the LCH is the only attack helicopter in the world capable of operating at altitudes as high as the Siachen Glacier. The LCH is smaller than the Indian Air Force's existing Russian-origin Mi-35 and soon to be inducted US-built AH-64 Apache. It has been designed to be capable of shooting down aerial targets such as drones and other helicopters, in addition to striking tanks and other ground targets using missiles and rockets.
The impetus to develop the LCH is believed to be the Kargil War of 1999, when the Indian Air Force had to rely on its Mi-17 transport helicopters to carry out rocket attacks as the Mi-35 was unable to operate at the high altitudes in the region. The integration of the Mistral, which also exists in land- and sea-launched versions, will equip the Indian military to deal with the growing threat of drones, which Pakistan and China are increasingly relying on.
Interestingly, the AH-64 Apache, which will arrive in India by March, is armed with the air-to-air variant of the US-built Stinger missile, a counterpart to the Mistral.
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) had accorded approval for procurement of initial batch of 15 LCHs (10 for the IAF and 5 for the Army).
With inputs from Onmanorama, PTI