Friday, January 21 2005 16:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) has been interacting with Chile for possible cooperation in HAL's indigenously designed & developed Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv.

The weather, terrain and operating environments of Chile are very similar to that of Indian sub-continent.

As Dhruv has been designed to operate in these hot-and-high and hot-and-cold conditions and has excelled in similar applications in India, the helicopter meets all the requirements of the Chilean operators.

Live demonstration by four Dhruv helicopters equipped with advanced cockpit, Electronic Warfare Suite and Surveillance Pod was conducted in Chile wherein wide range of applications of this sophisticated twin-engine multi-role helicopter were evaluated.

The helicopters flew to highest altitudes, in hot and desert conditions, carried out ship-deck landing, search and rescue as well as long distance ferry flights up and down of over 1800 Kms each way.

Besides the above, the operation role equipment like winch and external load carriage as well as instrument flying and emergency situations were demonstrated.

Dhruv met all the envisaged operational requirements of the Chilean Armed Forces. The Chilean operators are highly satisfied with the state of the art technology, excellent performance envelope and the multi-role capabilities of Dhruv.