Indian military and civil helicopter market is a big opportunity for HAL, says the company's chairman.

HAL chief T Suvarna Raju said, "We have taken steps to position ourselves well into this market by having products in the two to 10 tonne category of aircraft."

"The development of LUH would be very crucial to our plans as defence market capitalisation is based on timelines of this programme. We need to strive and achieve the operational clearance in line with the operational requirements of our defence services.

"Based on the current growth rate (approx. 10-12%), it can be predicted that the industry may have 400 to 600 helicopters by 2021. HAL is targeting this segment demand by customising ALH and by making efforts for civil certification of ALH.

He said the fixed wing defence market will see a lot of interest by foreign OEMs as the Indian Defence and civil requirements have made it as the 5th largest market in the world.

FGFA and MTA programmes have the capability to catapult us into the league of technology leaders, he added.

HAL vision

The vision for HAL in the coming years is to become a technology company while pursuing excellence in operations, according to HAL chairman.

He said the government's policy initiatives of coupled with the fact that European and USA market for defence have saturated, augur well for the growth of aerospace and defence sector in the country.

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