Grab opportunities to increase competitiveness in

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh onThursday lauded the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited forachieving operational clearance on seven platforms, includingLight Combat Aircraft and Light Combat Helicopter, andoverhauling Hawk and SU 30 MKI.

Singh was speaking after inaugurating the new Light Combat Helicopter production hangar at the helicopter division of the city-headquartered HAL.

Noting that HAL faces stiff competition from private defence industries, Singh asked the DPSU to take this changingenvironment as a challenge and grab the opportunities toincrease their competitiveness in the international market.

The LCH is completely ready for operational induction and Helicopter Complex is fully geared up for the production of LCH, the HAL said in a statement quoting its Chairman and Managing Director R Madhavan.

The new hangar will augment LCH productioncapacity to reach a peak production of 30 helicopters per year, HAL said.

The techno commercial proposal for 15 Limited SeriesProduction helicopters has already been submitted by HALin March 2018 and the order is awaited.

The total projectedrequirement is for around 160 helicopters, it said.

HAL officials apprised Singh of the progress of new design and development programme of indigenous Indian Multi Role Helicopter (IMRH).

he full scale mock-up was showcased to the Minister, the release said.

The IMRH (for IAF, Navy and Army) is proposed as areplacement to the existing medium lift helicopters such asMi17s, Kamovs and Seakings which will phase out in the nexteight to ten years and HAL is keen to complete the developmentof IMRH during this time, it said.

"Induction of indigenous IMRH will result in considerable savings of foreign exchange. Preliminary Project Report for Development has been submitted to MoD for sanction of funds by CCS," the statement said.