HAL Light Observation Helicopter

The HAL Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) is a single-engine light helicopter under development by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited of India. The 3-tonne helicopter for the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force will replace the fleet of Cheetah and Chetak helicopters. The project is in preliminary stages. The Indian military have a requirement for 384 helicopters of which 187 helicopters will be built by HAL. The first flight is expected in 2013. Production is planned to begin in 2015 at 10 per year, later on going up to 36 per year and delivery of 187 HAL’s LUHs is to be completed by 2022.

As of 3 November 2012, the bottom structure assembly of the LUH ground test vehicle is complete and has been taken down from the jig last month. According to HAL, "LUH assembly jigs are modular and gaugeless jigs, concurrently designed along with structure design using 3D CAD. There are five assembly jigs and a coupling jig enabling modular and concurrent build- up of the structure. The jigs are built and validated using state-of-the-art CAMS-Computer Aided Measurement System (laser tracker) to establish high accuracy and stability.