The Indian Army seeks to equip its attack helicopters with airborne fire control radars, enabling them to overcome the operational limitations being imposed by the present electro-optical systems fitted on such vehicles, and consequently enhancing their combat capacities.

Sarang – the ALH (Dhruv) display team of Indian Air force formed in October 2003 with the aim of showcasing the excellent agility, controllability & manoeuvrability of ALH (Picture Source: HAL)

This will require a comprehensive upgrade by retrofitting the required hardware and the avionics suite and integrating those with the existing systems and weapons package.

Until now, such attack helicopters were equipped with electro-optical systems and infrared pods, enabling the pilots to detect their targets, but with limited operational capabilities in low visibility conditions and bad weather conditions, reducing the effective deployment of those helicopters.

The Indian Army Aviation Corps fleet includes the indigenous Dhruv helicopters (and their weaponised version, the Rudra), as well as the French-made Cheetah (and their weaponised version, the Lancer) and Chetak helicopters.

Soon, indigenous Light Combat Helicopters (made by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, HAL), and US-made AH-64 Apache attack helicopters (which are already equipped with a fire control radar system, capable of tracking multiple targets and guided missiles) are scheduled to be inducted in the Corps.