Replacement of aircraft fleet of the defence forces including Cheetah and Chetak helicopters is reviewed from time to time keeping in view the operational requirements. This is a continuous process.
The Government has planned replacement of these helicopters with Naval Utility Helicopter, indigenous Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) manufactured by HAL under “Buy (Indian-IDDM)” project, and Russian built Ka-226T as “Buy & Make (Indian)”.
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Initial Operational Clearance to LUH has been granted. Four Limited Series Production (LSP) LUHs (02 for Indian Army and 02 for Indian Air Force) would be manufactured by 2022-23 and eight (LSP) LUHs (04 for Indian Army and 04 for Indian Air Force) by 2023-24. This would be followed by manufacture of Series Production (SP) Helicopters by HAL.
This information was given by Raksha Rajya Mantri Shri Ajay Bhatt in a written reply to Smt Ambika Soni in Rajya Sabha today.
