Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv Mk IIIIn trials conducted off the coast of Chennai, Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv Mk III, developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), has successfully demonstrated deck operations capabilities.
The helicopter has successfully demonstrated capabilities such as landing on deck and folding of blades. During the trials, the helicopter was successfully moved to the onboard hanger. The trial also included maintenance activities inside the hanger and on the deck and hot refueling with engines running.
The success of these trials, the HAL said in a release, has proven the capability of ALH Dhruv to carry out operations from ships.
“Some of the missions that were successfully executed were surveillance, search and rescue, antipollution to address oil spillage, etc. With the successful demonstration of these capabilities like blade folding, stowage, the helicopter is now ready to be fielded for operations,” said R Madhavan, the Chairman and Managing Director of HAL.
According to the HAL, the helicopter is equipped with “the most modern” surveillance radar. This radar is capable of identifying ships and boats up to a range of 120 nautical miles. It also comes with an electro-optical sensor that can “monitor even the smallest of the vessels at a distance as far as 30 nautical miles,” the HAL adds.
HAL has delivered Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv Mk III to the Indian Coast Guard as part of its deal to supply 16 helicopters to the service.
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