India's government-run aerospace and defence firm Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has completed the delivery of all 16 ALHMk3 helicopters, as ordered by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG). The delivery of the chopper took place at a ceremony in Bengaluru, in the presence of officials from the HAL and ICG.
ALHMk3 is an indigenously designed and developed helicopter made by HAL. The company has so far produced more than 330 ALHs, a versatile helicopter which has logged more than 3.74 lakhs of flying hours. Indian Coast Guard has taken delivery of the maritime variant of this chopper.
“We are proud to be associated with HAL and happy to issue a Letter of Intent (LoI) for nine more helicopters. Despite COVID-19, HAL delivered all the helicopters (ordered in March 2017) in the shortest time with seamless production activities and this allows us to strengthen India’s maritime security”, said VS Pathania, Director General, ICG.
Ananthakrishnan, CMD, HAL, said a unique feature of the contract has been the Performance Based Logistics (PBL) – the one-stop solution for the maintenance of these helicopters by HAL.
“This will serve as a benchmark for all our future contracts and boost our resolve to work with private partners to speed up the work in the interest of all our customers and strengthen Make-in-India activities in the Defence eco-system”, he added.
HAL Officials said that the major challenges in executing the ICG contract for choppers included the integration of new systems sourced from foreign manufacturers, conducting flight trials for certifications and overcoming supply chain disruptions, that arose during COVID-19 lockdowns.
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