HAL to produce 240 aero-engines for IAF’s Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 2  

The Cabinet Committee on Security on Monday okayed a proposal for procurement of 240 aero-engines for Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

The IAF has 272 of these jets of Russian parentage and form the biggest fleet of the IAF jets.

The Sukhoi uses an ‘AL-31FP’ engine designed in Russia. Public sector giant Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) – the Ministry of Defence holds a majority stake in it -- will produce the engines at a cost of over Rs 26,000 crore.  

“The delivery of these aero-engines would start after one year and complete over a period of eight years,” the Ministry of Defence said.

The engines will have over 54 per cent indigenous content, enhanced due to indigenisation of some key components of aero-engines. These would be manufactured at Koraput division of HAL. 

In the past, HAL and its suppliers had been supplying sub-parts of the engines while the servicing and overhauling of engines was done at Koraput.  

With Russia being involved in a conflict with Ukraine, the supply of engines was suffering, sources said, adding that the Sukhoi fleet has some planes that are now more than 20 years old. Engines of a jet are changed after a certain number of flying hours.

The Sukhoi—a twin engine jet—is one of the most powerful and strategically significant fleet of the IAF. The supply of these aero-engines by HAL would meet the fleet sustenance requirement of the IAF to continue their unhindered operations and strengthen the defence preparedness of the country.