A Bangalore, India, training academy is expected to soon receive a simulator for that country’s new attack helicopter, according to a local newspaper.

The Bangalore Mirror reports that Helicopter Academy to Train by Simulation Flying (HATSOFF) is to add a simulator for the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) indigenous Light Combat Helicopter (LCH).

A joint venture of HAL and CAE, the academy today offers training for the Bell Helicopter 412 and 212 and Airbus Helicopters AS365N/N1/N2/N3 with Level D full-flight simulators and Level 2/3 flight training devices both approved by the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority and India’s Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA) and training for operators of the HAL-built Dhruv on a DGCA-certified full-flight simulator and flight training device.

Officials said the new simulator would be for an armed version of the Light Combat Helicopter.

HAL has been developing the Light Combat Helicopter as a platform capable of supporting military operations at India's most extreme elevations, such as the 19,600-feet high Siachen glacier near the northernmost de facto order between India and Pakistan.

The 12,000 to 13,000-pound-class Light Combat Helicopter is designed to carry a nose gun, rockets, air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles and be equipped with an advanced cockpit with day/night targeting systems, a helmet-pointed sight and with a self-protection suite (radar/laser missile warning systems and a countermeasures dispensing system).

In February, HAL officials said the first series of 10 helicopters would be available to the Indian Air Force by midyear.