Droupadi Murmu will undertake a sortie in the indigenously developed Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) HAL Prachand at Jaisalmer Air Force Station on Friday morning as part of her official visit to Rajasthan.
The President, who is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces, will arrive in Jaisalmer on Thursday evening and will be received by Haribhau Bagade and Bhajanlal Sharma. Defence sources said the sortie in Prachand will be among the key engagements of her visit.
The LCH Prachand, developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, is India’s first indigenously designed and developed combat helicopter. Engineered to operate across diverse terrains—from deserts to high-altitude regions—it can function at altitudes exceeding 5,000 metres, making it suitable for deployment along mountainous borders. Equipped with advanced avionics, stealth features, night-attack capability and a range of weapons including air-to-ground and air-to-air missiles, rockets and a 20 mm gun, Prachand significantly enhances India’s combat capability.
In the evening, President Murmu will attend the Indian Air Force’s mega firepower demonstration, Vayu Shakti, at the Pokhran Field Firing Range near the India-Pakistan border. The event will showcase coordinated day-to-dusk-to-night operations in a near-realistic combat scenario, involving frontline fighter jets, transport aircraft, helicopters and air defence systems.
The President’s sortie in Prachand adds to her previous engagements with frontline platforms. In 2023, she flew in a Sukhoi-30 MKI at Tezpur, and in 2025, she undertook a sortie in a Rafale fighter aircraft at Ambala, becoming the first Indian President to fly in multiple frontline fighter jets of the Indian Air Force.
The visit underscores the nation’s confidence in indigenous defence capabilities and highlights the growing role of homegrown platforms in strengthening India’s military preparedness.
