HAL, US firm GE sign fresh pact for 113 Tejas engines

Public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on Friday signed a fresh agreement with US company General Electric (GE) for sourcing 113 F404 engines and a support package for the under-production Tejas Mark-1A fighter jets.

The engines will be delivered between 2027 and 2032, HAL said. Neither HAL nor GE has disclosed the value of the contract, but it is estimated to be around $1 billion (Rs 8,800 crore).

The 113 engines are meant for the 97 Tejas jets for which the Ministry of Defence (MoD) signed a Rs 62,370-crore contract with HAL in August. This latest order for 97 jets comes in addition to an earlier order for 83 aircraft, taking the total Tejas Mark-1A order to 180 jets.

HAL, a listed company in which the MoD holds a majority stake, had earlier signed a $716-million deal with GE in January 2021 to supply 99 F404 engines for the first batch of 83 Tejas Mark-1A aircraft. Deliveries under that contract were scheduled to begin in April 2023 at a rate of 16 engines per year. However, as of last month, only four engines had been delivered, delaying the supply of Tejas Mark-1A aircraft to the Indian Air Force (IAF).

According to the MoD, the new contract for 113 engines is for the 97 planes that are to be delivered to the IAF from 2027-28 onwards and be completed over a period of six years.

The 97 new Tejas jets will incorporate advanced, indigenously developed technologies such as the ‘Uttam’ Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar and an electronic warfare suite, further strengthening India’s ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative. These jets will represent the most advanced variant of the indigenously designed and manufactured Tejas aircraft, the MoD said.