HAL bags $10 mn order for Chetak, Cheetah from Namibia

Giving an impetus to its export programme, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has bagged an $10 million order for supplying two Chetak and one Cheetah light utility helicopters to the Namibian armed forces."HAL has bagged a new export order to supply Chetak and Cheetah helicopters to Namibia, a southern African nation," Defence Ministry sources said here today. The deal with the Namibian Defence Ministry was signed in April this year and it came in the wake of series of export orders bagged by HAL for supply of Dhruv Advanced Light Utility Helicopters in the past one year. Chetak is a multi-purpose, seven-seater helicopter and Cheetah is a light observation helicopter and both these platforms are used by the Indian Air Force and the Army's Aviation Corps. These two helicopters are extensively used by the armed forces in the icy heights of Siachen, once the world's highest battlefield, where guns fell silent in 2003 after a ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan. Chetak and Cheetah production at HAL began under a licenced agreement with Eurocopter in 1970. The helicopter division of HAL has so far produced nearly 350 Chetaks and 250 Cheetahs, mostly supplied to domestic customers, both the defence and civilian sector, and has exported a few of them.

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