Defence mode:The Air Force had asked for the feasibility of integrating Helina on the Light Combat Helicopter.ANIANI  

The helicopter-launched Nag Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM), Helina, being developed indigenously, has completed all trials and the process for issuing of acceptance of necessity (AoN) by the Army has started, said Sachin Sood, project director of Helina and Dhruvastra at the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

“The launcher and missile are ready. There are some Human-Machine Interface [HMI] to be realised, which are going on now,” Dr. Sood told The Hindu .

While the cost estimate was yet to be done, each missile was expected to cost under Rs. 1 crore, and around 500 missiles and 40 launchers would be required initially, he added.

Once the AoN is issued, the request for proposal (RFP) would be issued. Some firing trials would be done from the first production lot by the Army at a later stage.

Helina is a third-generation fire-and-forget class ATGM mounted on an indigenous Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), and has a minimum range of 500 metres and a maximum range of 7 kilometres. All issues with the minimum range had been sorted out and the integration with other weapons on the platform was over, said Dr. Sood.

Stating that the Air Force had asked for the feasibility of integrating the Helina on the soon-to-be inducted Light Combat Helicopter (LCH), Dr. Sood said this would be done and would bring in economies of scale in the production of the missile. “There is also very good export potential,” Dr. Sood added.

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