HAL rolls out 300th Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], September 30 : In a remarkable feat in the indigenous weapon production programme, the 300th Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH-Dhruv) rolled out from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) hangar in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
According to an official release, HAL is producing 73 ALHs contracted for Army (41) and 16 each for Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard.
Out of this, 38 ALHs have already been produced and the remaining will be completed by 2022.
The roll-out certificate of the 300th helicopter was handed over to GVS Bhaskar, Chief Executive Officer, Helicopter Complex by Y K Sharma, Additional Director General (South Zone), Directorate General of Aeronautical Quality Assurance (DGAQA) at a programme held at HAL's Helicopter Division.
Bhaskar said that rolling-out of 300th ALH is a testimony to the capabilities HAL has built over the years with concerted efforts of employees and customer support.
"With more ALH getting inducted into the services our focus on customer support is ever increasing. With over 2,80,000 flying hours ALH has proven to be a multirole helicopter for 'any mission, any place, any time," he said.
R Madhavan, CMD, HAL said ALH never looked back from the day when the prototype took its maiden flight on August 30, 1992, and has evolved into a world-class helicopter with its unparalleled performance.
"The evolution from ALH Mark-I to Mark-IV has been phenomenal and is a boost to the indigenous design and development of helicopters", he added.
On this occasion, the 'ground run' of the first Limited Series Production (LSP) of Light Combat Helicopter, was also carried out.
This project has been taken up by HAL proactively while the order from the services is in process.