HAL's Dhruv Helicopter Receives Restricted Type Certification from European Union

India’s Dhruv helicopter, built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) received restricted type certification from European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in Brussels, Belgium today.

HAL confirmed this in a post on its official Twitter account on July 4.

“The EASA certification establishes that HAL is capable of designing helicopter platforms meeting stringent European certification requirements,” the tweet said.

The indigenously designed and developed ALH Dhruv is a twin engine, multi-role, multi-mission new generation helicopter in the 5.5 ton weight class. The basic helicopter is produced in skid version and wheeled version. Certification of the utility military variant was completed in 2002 and that of the civil variant was completed in 2004. The deliveries of production series helicopters commenced from 2001-02 onwards.

More than 200 Dhruvs are operating with Indian military. HAL obtained orders in 2017 for 73 ALHs from Army, Coast Guard and Navy for ALH Mk-III & Mk-IV variants.

Among other tasks, the helicopters will be mainly used for maritime reconnaissance, coastal surveillance, and search-and-rescue operations. ALH MK III is also fitted with a heavy machine gun to undertake constabulary missions. A removable medical intensive care unit (ICU) is also fitted on ALH MK III helicopters to airlift critically ill patients.