Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv Mk III MR displayed deck-operations capabilities including landing on deck, folding of blades and storage of the helicopter inside the onboard hangar of ICGS Sujay. The recently concluded ship-borne trials off Chennai coast in collaboration with the Indian Coast Guard also covered maintenance activities inside the hangar and on the deck, hot refueling with engines running on the deck. The helicopter is equipped with the most modern and reliable Shakti engines and an advanced glass cockpit. HAL recently delivered ALH Dhruv Mk III MR to Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Navy.
“These trials have proven the capability of ALH Dhruv to carry out extended operations from ships. Some of the missions that were successfully executed were surveillance, search and rescue, antipollution to address oil spillage, etc. With the successful demonstration of these capabilities like blade folding, stowage, the helicopter is now ready to be fielded for operations,” said R Madhavan, CMD, HAL.
Dhruv Mk III MR is equipped with the most modern surveillance radar that can detect and identify ships and boats up to a range of 120 nautical miles to enable the Indian Coast Guard in its duty to secure the nation from threats. Coupled with an electro-optical sensor that can closely monitor even the smallest of the vessels at distances as far as 30 nautical miles, ALH Dhruv will boost the capabilities of the Indian Coast Guard.
ICGS Sujay is the sixth ship of the Samarth-class offshore patrol vessel. The 105 m was commissioned into the Indian Coast Guard in 2018 and is based at Chennai.