IAF News & Discussion Feb-Mar 07

India unveils high-tech gunship

Yelahanka (Bangalore): Indian Army troops who have fought off enemy aggression on high-altitude frontiers can now take heart.

India looks set to develop an attack helicopter capable of providing aerial fire support to troops in high-altitude battlefields.

India needed such helicopter gunship during the Kargil conflict, but did not have it.

The gap in India’s capability of providing air support to infantry troops fighting in high-altitude battlefields is now being addressed.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is re-jigging the Advanced Light Helicopter to provide Indian forces their first dedicated attack helicopter which is able to fly hot and high.

The need for a helicopter gunship, capable of operating at high-altitude, was felt during the Kargil conflict, when the Russian M-17 proved to be a sitting duck for intruders armed with Stinger missiles.

But the new gunship can hover over inaccessible areas and hunt down enemies at places where fixed-wing, fast-moving aircraft find it difficult to track targets.

This gunship-in-the-making is being designed to carry and deliver a 1,500-kilo weapon-load even at the world’s highest battlefields.

And a mock-up display at the Bangalore airshow suggests that this helicopter will be so full of fire that it will rain hell on the enemy from the air.

If it’s cluster bombs don’t get the enemy, it’s air-to-ground missiles will. One of the two pilots on board will have a dedicated firing role.

“Any future battle will be fought with helicopters and missiles,” said HAL Chief Test Pilot C D Upadhyay.

The Light Attack Helicopter has a narrow airframe for stealth. It will have more utility than the IAF’s Russian-made Mi-35 gunship, which cannot operate at heights.

It’s a mean looking machine. Actually, it reminds me a bit of the Tiger chopper gunship. It’s cockpit looks a little like a greenhouse. But this is just a mock-up. We’re told that the final product will look much better.

HAL hopes to equip the IAF with about 70 gunships starting 2010.

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