Extensive Sea Trials of HAL Green Helicopter Completed

By
IFE Admin
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Extensive Sea Trials of HAL Green Helicopter Completed

The RWR&DC has successfully carried out the 3rd oversea trials of green helicopters ALH Mk.III wheel variant at Coast Guard Air Station in Chennai. The flight trials involved flying at day and night.

The first batch of the “made in India” Mark-III variant “Dhruv” Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) customized for coastal security is slated for delivery to Indian Navy (IN) and Indian Coast Guard (ICG) shortly. This is a landmark event for both sides, being the first bulk order of the Dhruv Mk-III placed on state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) by the two services.

The flight test was carried out for the surveillance radar, EOIR payload with Short Wave Infra-Red (SWIR), automatic identification system AIS, onboard solid-state digital video recorder SSDVR, navigation accuracy checks oversea with an integrated architecture-display system (IADS).

Three Coast Guard ships Sujay, Abheek & Priyadarshini with a large contingent of the sailing team participated & provided support in the trials. The data generated through extensive flight testing will be used for completion of certification of 19 new systems fitted on ALH Mk-Ill.

The contract for 32 coastal security ALH was inked in March 2017 with ICG as the lead service. The for 16 — to supplement its ageing and depleting fleet of Alouettes (Chetaks) — was dovetailed into this program based on the overarching responsibility for coastal security placed on it by the government of India in the wake of 26/11 (2008) terrorist attacks on Mumbai.

The selection of systems and customization was done primarily in consultation with ICG. For its coastal security role, the aircraft has a nose-mounted surveillance radar with 270-degree coverage that can detect, classify and track multiple marine targets; it has synthetic-aperture radar, inverse synthetic-aperture radar, and moving target indication classification functions, including weather mode. There is also a multi-spectral electro-optic (EO) pod for reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition and range finding with stable control grip on copilot side.

Other features include a removable medical intensive care unit for the air ambulance role; high-intensity searchlight, loudhailer, 12.7-mm cabin-mounted machine gun (with provisions on the left side), traffic alert and collision avoidance system, V/UHF communication system with data modem, IFF Mk-XII with Mode S transponder, automatic identification system, automatic deployable emergency location transmitter, solid-state digital video recorder, pressure refuelling system, 360-degree search-and-rescue homer with coverage from 110-410 MHz, electrical rescue winch with rescue basket for double-lift (250 kilograms/550 pounds), control grip (winchman mini-stick) in the cabin for air-sea rescue, and upgraded IADS and automatic flight control system software.

Such an array of systems was hitherto seen only on heavier, multi-role helicopters of the Indian Navy. For instance, no light helicopter in the IN’s inventory ever featured a glass cockpit, surveillance radar or EO pod. The helicopter bears a “fully loaded” look. The maximum certificated all-up weight has been revised to 5,750 kg (12,675 lb.) from the earlier Mk-I variant of IN and ICG that weighed in at 5,500 kg (12,125 lb.).

Sources/Inputs : HAL, Vertical Mag, Wikipedia, Twitter user Vayu Aerospace Review.