According to a report by India's "Eurasian Times" on June 19, the Indian Ministry of Defense announced that it had placed an order with Hindustan Aeronautics to purchase 156 LCH "Prachande" light armed helicopters, of which 90 helicopters are equipped with the Indian Army and 66 are equipped with the Air Force. This information was also confirmed by subsequent reports in the military media, which meant significant changes in India's helicopter armament.
Indian officials interviewed anonymously revealed that the order reached $5.4 billion, one of the largest deals received by Hindustan Airlines, and that the Indian military was indeed a big deal this time. Hindustan Aeronau's stock price soared 6.5% on the news, showing the impact of the order.
Although India's weapons are often ridiculed, they are either "made in all countries" or they are not very reliable and developed by India. However, according to the currently published LCH helicopter data, although this Indian domestic helicopter is not particularly outstanding, it is at least relatively reliable. If the helicopter is universally equipped, it will put a lot of pressure on Pakistan.
To see the performance of a helicopter, the key is to see whether it can adapt to the battlefield environment and whether it can play its due function, not just its data. In terms of attack capabilities, LCH helicopters are naturally far inferior to all kinds of heavy armed helicopters, but closer to reconnaissance helicopters, but their advantage is that they are better at fighting on mountain plateaus and have undergone a large number of extreme environmental tests.
And the reason why it will put pressure on Pakistan is that the development of this helicopter itself has a purpose for Pakistan. India and Pakistan are also old enemies, far from it, just the 1999 Kargil war. The war was again fought over Kashmir, where India claimed that "a large number of Pakistani infiltrators" had invaded the Indian-controlled side of Kashmir and occupied several hills, including Tutu Ridge, and therefore wanted to "regain lost territory".
The merits of the Kashmir conflict are aside, but this conflict has indeed caused a lot of psychological shadows for the Indian army. The "Pakistani infiltrators" occupy a hill more than 5,000 meters high and have a favorable geographical position, while the Indian army can only attack from the foot of the mountain, and the casualties are huge, and even the deputy commander of the 18th Grenadier Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Viswanazan, was killed in a suicide attack.
Of course, the Indian army has not forgotten air support, but India's domestic helicopter technology is backward at this time, and the armed helicopters mainly rely on imports. However, the Mi-35 helicopters imported by India from Russia are not adapted to the mountainous combat environment, and in fact they have not been able to provide much support to the army. In the end, although the Indian army relied on many strong attacks to capture Tutu Ridge, it also paid a huge price.
After this painful lesson, India learned from the pain and began its own helicopter gunship project, which was the beginning of the LCH project. However, although it is a domestic helicopter, due to the relatively backward basic technology in India, a large number of foreign technologies have been borrowed and introduced in the actual research and development process. The model is actually a reference to the ALH "Polaris" utility helicopter, a small multi-purpose helicopter jointly developed by India and Germany.
In 2010, the first LCH prototype made its maiden flight, and the LCH helicopter was scheduled to enter service with the Indian Air Force and Army between 2012 and 2013. It was only last year that Hindustan Aeronautics completed the production of the first batch of helicopter gunships.
According to a report by Reference News Network on August 9, 2023, India has completed the production of a total of 15 LCH helicopters, of which 5 are equipped with the army and 10 with the air force. At this time, LCH actually entered service with the Indian army, 13 years have passed since the first flight of the prototype, and more than 20 years have passed since the beginning of the project.
This year, the Indian military has increased its procurement efforts and bought 156 in one go, which is likely to be a signal that the Indian army is generally equipped with LCH helicopters. According to this procurement effort, LCH will gradually replace India's original "Made in Nations" helicopter and become the new main model of Indian helicopters.
Although India has always claimed that the LCH helicopter is a helicopter developed by India, according to evaluations, the helicopter is actually only 45% localized. It was not until this year that the Indian military placed a large order that the degree of localization increased to 55%.
This 10% increase is also due to the fact that Hindustan Aeronautics has the money to buy the Turbomeca 1H1 turboshaft engine technology. Although the purchase process has been completed, the Turbomeca engine was developed by France after all, which also confirms the fact that India's own defense research and development capabilities are still weak.
However, although the LCH helicopter is not as localized as India itself claims, the helicopter is indeed cost-effective and can be regarded as one of the more reliable weapons developed by India. Functionally, the mountain combat capability of the LCH helicopter is stronger than that of the Mi-25 and Mi-35 introduced earlier, and the cost is much lower than that of the American Apache, which is still more cost-effective.
So what exactly is the strength of the LCH helicopter? It's not firepower, it's adaptability.
In terms of firepower, the LCH is armed with only a 120mm M621 cannon with a maximum rate of fire of 800 rounds per minute. It sounds good, but in fact, although its firepower is intensive, its power is limited, and it is difficult to cause actual damage to ordinary main battle tanks, and it can only hit a dozen ordinary armored targets. Compared with the mainland's Wuzhi 19, the LCH take-off weight is larger, the tail boom is particularly high, the design is not very smooth, and it is difficult to achieve the lethality of the Wuzhi 19.
However, in terms of adaptability, the LCH helicopter is indeed not bad, and after various extreme environment tests, its lack of firepower is acceptable. Hindustan Aeronautics proudly claims that the LCH helicopter flies at the highest altitude of any attack helicopter in the world and is capable of operating in highland and mountainous terrain above 5,000 meters, which is difficult for other gunships to do.
This kind of adaptability is highly adapted to the needs of the Indian army, because now India does not have any major battles to fight, mainly engaged in border conflicts, and India's border conflicts are basically concentrated in the plateau and mountainous areas. To operate in these areas, helicopters are necessary to adapt to difficult terrain and extremely cold climates.
Although India has many neighbors, there are not many countries that can clash with India in the mountain plateau, there are only two in total, one is the mainland and the other is Pakistan. Of course, it is not enough for India to touch the porcelain continent, and the performance of the LCH helicopter is not as good as that of the Wuzhi 19. But given that India has created border frictions many times before, we should still be vigilant.
India's other neighbor, Pakistan, is under more pressure, and border clashes between the two countries are commonplace. Now that India has ordered so many LCH helicopters in one go, it may have to increase its order in the future, which has led to a change in the balance of air power between the two countries. If the two countries were to clash like the Kargil War, the Indian army would be able to receive a large amount of air support from LCH helicopters, putting a lot of pressure on Pakistan.