India’s Advanced Light Helicopter Demos Deck Ops in Ship-Borne Trials

India’s Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv Mk III MR completed its deck-operations capabilities that include landing on deck, folding of blades and storing the helicopter inside the onboard hangar.

The aircraft was developed by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The recently concluded ship-borne trials off Chennai coast in collaboration with the Indian Coast Guard covered maintenance activities inside the hangar and on the deck, hot refueling with engines running on the deck, manufacturer HAL said in a release.

ALH Dhruv is equipped with Shakti engines and an advanced glass cockpit. HAL had recently delivered the rotorcraft to the Indian Coast Guard as part of its 16 ALH contract.

Dhruv Mk III MR is fitted with a surveillance radar that can detect and detect and identify ships and boats up to a range of 120 nautical miles. Coupled with an electro-optical sensor that can closely monitor even the smallest of the vessels at distances as far as 30 nautical miles.