Lucknow: In a boost to the Indian defence forces, defence public sector undertaking (DPSU) Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has received the Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) for production of the Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), which is set to replace the ageing fleet of Cheetah and Chetak helicopters.

HAL CMD R Madhavan received the Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) document from G Sateesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence R & D and Chairman, DRDO at the Bandhan programme held at the ongoing DefExpo 2020 in Lucknow, a company statement said on February 7.

The document was handed over in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and others, the HAL statement added.

Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) is a single-engine, lightweight and highly agile three-ton utility helicopter, indigenously designed and developed to meet the operational requirements of the Army and the Indian Air Force.

“It reinforces our commitment towards indigenous R&D programmes on self-reliance and enhancing operational effectiveness of the Indian armed forces. The HAL is fully geared up to fulfill the requirements of its customers in a time-bound manner,” he said.

Arup Chatterjee, Director, Engineering and R&D, HAL, said the performance of basic configuration of the LUH in all terrains and under all weather conditions was satisfactory.

“The HAL is moving towards the next phase of integrating and flight testing of mission and role equipment on the LUH,” he said.

The statement said one LUH prototype is part of flying display and another is part of static display at the DefExpo 2020.

Three prototypes have been built and cumulatively completed over 550 flights under various terrains and climatic conditions like cold weather, hot weather, sea-level and high-altitude, complying to stringent certification and user requirements, it said.

The LUH’s endurance and reliability was established during the hot weather and high-altitude trials where it was ferried from Bengaluru, covering over 7,000-km distance and continuously flying for 17 days without any abnormalities, the statement added.