Safran Helicopter Engines and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) have agreed to establish a support centre in India for national and international rotorcraft customers. The joint venture will be opened in the coming months.

This new centre will provide maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) services for Safran TM333 and HAL Shakti engines installed on HAL-built helicopters. This scope could be enlarged to include other engines in the future.

With a fleet of over 1,000 engines, including 250 TM333 and 250 Shakti engines, India’s armed forces are one of the largest operators of Safran-designed helicopter engines. Shakti is the Indian designation for the Safran Ardiden 1H1, co-developed with HAL and produced under license.

Shakti is fitted to HAL’s ALH/Dhruv and has been selected to power the HAL-designed Light Combat Helicopter (LCH). The Ardiden 1U variant powers the new Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), a three-ton single-engine aircraft under development.