Archive · 15 Aug 2026
HAL Partners BEML, Adani to Produce Prachand Helicopter Fuselages
A big Indian company that makes helicopters is getting help from two other companies.
The company is called HAL, and it makes a fighting helicopter called the Prachand.
HAL will build the helicopter bodies, called fuselages, together with BEML and Adani Defence.
This is the first time private companies in India are helping to build helicopter bodies.
The Indian Army and the Indian Air Force have asked for 156 of these helicopters, which is a very big order worth a huge amount of money.
BEML will build 48 helicopter bodies and Adani Defence will build 42.
The new helicopters will get cool new features like special missiles, laser-guided rockets, and electronic systems.
The helicopters will have many parts made in India, which helps the country make its own defence equipment.
Building them will give jobs to many small Indian companies and workers.
HAL has partnered with BEML and Adani Defence Systems and Technologies to manufacture fuselages for the indigenous Prachand light combat helicopter.
BEML will produce 48 fuselages, Adani Defence 42, and HAL the remaining units, marking the first time private industry is integrated into helicopter fuselage production.
HAL is executing orders worth Rs 62,700 crore for 156 Prachand helicopters, with 90 for the Indian Army and 66 for the Indian Air Force.
Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2027-28, with production underway at HAL's Tumakuru, Karnataka facility, which can build 30 helicopters a year, expandable to 100.
Series-production helicopters will feature seven new systems, including indigenous air-to-ground missiles, laser-guided rockets, electronic warfare systems and nuclear detection equipment, with indigenous content expected to rise above 65 per cent.
- Who
- Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and its partners BEML and Adani Defence Systems and Technologies, under HAL chief Ravi K
- What
- Formalised partnerships to manufacture fuselages for the indigenous Prachand light combat helicopter under a Rs 62,700 crore order for 156 helicopters
- When
- Announced around August 14, 2026, with deliveries scheduled to begin in 2027-28
- Where
- India — production at HAL's 615-acre helicopter factory in Tumakuru, Karnataka, with BEML manufacturing from its Mysuru complex
- Why
- To expand production capacity, integrate private industry into helicopter fuselage manufacturing for the first time, and strengthen India's domestic aerospace supply chain under the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' self-reliance drive
- Partnership
- HAL, BEML and Adani Defence Systems and Technologies
- Order value
- Rs 62,700 crore
- Helicopters ordered
- 156 Prachand LCHs (90 Indian Army, 66 Indian Air Force)
- Fuselages by BEML
- 48
- Fuselages by Adani Defence
- 42
- Delivery start
- 2027-28, with the full order completed over the following five years
- Indigenous content
- 45 per cent today, expected to rise above 65 per cent
- Production capacity
- 30 helicopters per year, expandable to 100, at HAL's Tumakuru, Karnataka facility
