Since there's a nice discussion that's frothing up on the Naval ALH Dhruv -- begun after Ajai Shukla's fine chopper series on
Broadsword -- thought I'd post some photos of the ALH that I've taken over the months. I flew in an Army variant of the Dhruv in 2005, and it's a beautiful machine. Would hate to see anything of the sort that Prasun K Sengupta has alluded to in his piece (scroll down a couple of posts) ruining the chopper's fortunes, that seem to be looking up now, fortunately. The Dhruv's been exported to three countries so far. The implications of that are magnificent -- the forces of other countries using an Indian-designed (by and large) and Indian-built aircraft. Still a heady thought.
Good luck to HAL chairman Ashok K Baweja and his team in bagging those deals in Bolivia and Venezuela soon. I suppose Hugo Chavez's presidentship disqualifies Bell Textron from the sweepstakes right there! Heh!
Photos ©Copyright Shiv Aroor / LiveFist
