Hal at the official First flight of LCH (Light Combat Helicopter) also displayed the full scale mockup of the Light Utility Helicopter (LUH); LUH will be replacing current work horse Chetak, Cheetah of Indian Army and Indian Ari force, Requirements put forward by both the forces are around 384 helicopters.
In latest Mock up it seems that HAL is sticking with Conventional Tail rotor instead of shrouded tail rotor which was first displayed in Aero India 2009 model. Aero India model of LUH had shrouded tail rotor which is also known as Fenestron or Fantail in aviation circle. Our Defence expert Rajesh Sharma told idrw.org that it might have been done to keep the construction cost lower and ducted fan tail rotor adds weight to helicopter , LUH is supposed to be a 3 ton helicopter powered by a single HAL/Turbomeca Shakti engine. The aircraft will have a range of up to 500km (270nm) and a 500kg (1,100lb) payload. LUH will be used in Higher Attitude region.
Since these requirements are on urgent basis all 384 helicopters will not be sourced from HAL only, around 187 LUHs (126 for the Army and 61 for the Air Force) initially will be sourced from a foreign vendor, Trials for LUH are been carried out at this moment and participating companies are Euro copter with its AS550 Model, Agusta Westland with AW119 and Russia’s Rosoboron export with Kamov-226.
Recent media reports suggest that AW119 LUH from Agusta Westland has been disqualified from the trails for bring a civilian variant to the competition, and reports of again competition heading for cancellation have been reported due to irregularities by vendor companies.
