Army gets first indigenously made attack chopper

The first indigenously-developed weaponised helicopter 'Rudra' was today handed over to the Army, which has successfully raised an attack chopper fleet on its own.

This is the first of the 60 armed helicopters provided to the Army by

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) after the defence ministry handed over control of all attack helicopters to the land force.

"This is a very important system for us as it will be the first platform (of choppers) which is weaponised. In any battle, fire (power) and manoeuvrability should be closely integrated to support ground operations and provide immediate help if and when required.

"This (Rudra) will help us to get that capability," Army Deputy Chief Lt Gen Narendra Singh told reporters. "The first squadron of the helicopters would be operationalised soon. We will have 60 choppers and one squadron will have 10 of them," Army Aviation Corps' Maj Gen P K Bharali told PTI.

He was talking on the sidelines of a function where HAL Chairman R K Tyagi officially handed over the chopper to the Army. Bharali said a total of 60 Rudras would be inducted into the Army and the machines will be part of six squadrons.

The chopper is armed with air-to-air missiles such as the 'Mistral', rocket pods and heavy machine guns to help the ground forces with close air support. The Army is also planning to procure the under-development Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) being produced by HAL.

Recently, after a long tussle between the Army and the Air Force, the defence ministry decided to give control of all future acquisitions of attack choppers to the land force. The Army has plans of having a squadron of weaponised choppers in each of the pivot corps and a full-fledged attack chopper squadron with the three Strike Corps.