HAL rolls out 300th ALH Dhruv

Bengaluru: The 300thAdvanced Light Helicopter (ALH-Dhruv) rolled out from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s hangar here on Tuesday.

Speaking on the occasion, HAL CMD, R Madhavan said ALH never looked back from the day when the prototype took its maiden flight on August 30, 1992 and has “evolved into a world class helicopter with its unparalleled performance”.

“The evolution from ALH Mark-I to Mark-IV has been phenomenal and is a boost to the indigenous design and development of helicopters,” the Bengaluru-headquartered HAL quoted him as saying in a media statement.

The Roll-out certificate of the 300thhelicopter was handed over to G V S Bhaskar, Chief Executive Officer, Helicopter Complex, by Y K Sharma, Additional Director General (South Zone), Directorate General of Aeronautical Quality Assurance (DGAQA) at a programme held at HAL”s Helicopter Division.

Bhaskar said “With over 2,80,000 flying hours ALH has proven to be a multirole helicopter for Any Mission, Any Place, Any Time.”

Currently, HAL is producing 73 ALHs contracted for Army (41), Indian Navy (16) and Indian Coast Guard (16).

Out of this, 38 ALHs have already been produced and the remaining will be completed by 2022, it said.

On this occasion, the ”Ground Run” of the first Limited Series Production (LSP) of Light Combat Helicopter- Limited Series Production (LCH-LSP) was carried out.