24 May 2005: Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) chair Ashok Baweja said yesterday that India's security establishment will order at least 200 Dhruv advanced light helicopters. Baweja made the comments during a ceremony in Israel introducing the helicopter.
In a deal that may progress to joint production, the Israeli MOD has leased a single Dhruv helicopter through Israeli Aircraft Industry (IAI) to transport VIPs and security services personnel. So far VIP transportation has been handled by the Israeli Air Force (IAF)which uses the Blackhawk helicopter for the purpose. The arrangement between the MOD and IAI to partly outsource VIP transportation to IAI is expected to boost the chances of IAI obtaining an export order for the helicopter. IA1 will market the Dhruv in South America, the Middle East, and eventually in Asia and Africa.
The Dhruv was designed by HAL with assistance from MBB of Germany in the early 1990s. It is a multi-role and multi-mission helicopter designed to be flown at altitudes over 20,000 but also down to hot deserts and on sea missions. It can carry up to 14 people or a 1.5-ton payload. It is equipped with an advance avionics suite made by the Lahav division of IAI.
The helicopter is powered by the Snecma TM 333. The engine was developed for 5-ton-class helicopters and started its career as powerplant of Eurocopter's twin-engine Dauphin and Panther. It develops some 801 kW (1,074 shaft horsepower) at takeoff, with growth potential to 900 kW (1,200 shp).
HAL plans to display the Dhruv along with the IJT at the Paris Air Show in June this year. The average price of the Dhruv is around $5.5 million
Dhruv helicopter continues to demonstrate why it is a front runner for any customer seeking a medium class state of art helicopter. First, it broke the world record for highest cruise by a medium class helicopter in November last year. Recently, in April 2005, Dhruv again proved its unsurpassable capability, this time at sea level.
ONGC, which has a pressing need for medium class helicopter for its offshore operations, required a demonstration of landing at its production platforms, floating rings and unmanned rigs. ONGC required this to be done with maximum possible passengers, while maintaining within Performance Class I criteria. This is a safety criteria which requires the helicopter performance and design to be such that the helicopter can fly away or land safely in case of one engine failure. DGCA has now made Class I performance mandatory for offshore operations.
The Indian Airforce had carried out extensive trials of Dhruv in offshore role successfully in 2003 itself. However, Dhruv demonstrated all this again at ONGC’s furthest field, Bombay High South, with ONGC observers onboard in April this year. The demonstration showed beyond doubt that Dhruv could meet Performance Class I criteria with 12 to 14 passengers even while operating to ONGC’s furthest oil field ex Juhu, Mumbai. This performance was remarkable, as no other medium class helicopter currently deployed in offshore operations ex Mumbai can match this performance of Dhruv.
HAL is confident that the Civil helicopter market would have taken note of the excellent performance of Dhruv both at sea level and extreme high altitudes. The demonstrated excellent performance, comparatively large cabin space and state of art technology are likely to give Dhruv an edge over its competitors in the fast growing civil helicopter market.