Ajay Banerjee
Bengaluru, February 14
India is planning to manufacture 470 fighter jets, with the first one — Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mark-1A — to be rolled out in February next year. The massive project in already underway.
HAL eyes export market
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Chairman and Managing Director CB Ananthakrishnan said HAL was eyeing the export market and vying for orders of Tejas jets from Egypt and Argentina. “In Egypt, we have offered a kind of maintenance programme as well,” he added. TNS
Of the 470 jets, 370 will be for the Indian Air Force while 100 twin-engine jets will be for the Navy.
These 470 jets are separate from 114 jets the IAF wants to manufacture in collaboration with a foreign partner in India.
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is producing 83 Tejas Mark-1A jets.
CB Ananthakrishnan, HAL Chairman and Managing Director, said: “We are on schedule to deliver the first jet in February 2024. The manufacturing capacities have been augmented and the delivery of all 83 jets will be ahead of schedule.”
“Delays are a thing of the past. We have sufficient supply chain and delivery capacity,” he added.
Apart from 83 Tejas Mark-1A jets, the project includes 108 Tejas Mark-2 jets, 126 jets of the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA) and 100 twin-engine deck-based fighters for the Navy.
HAL estimates that the gap between manufacturing of Tejas Mark-1A and Tejas Mark-2 will be bridged by an additional order of the former. The numbers of additional Tejas Mark-1A jets could be about 50, said sources.
The total of all this adds up to about 470.
All jets after Tejas Mark-1A will use the General Electric’s 414 engine producing 98 kilonewton of thrust.
The indigenous programme is being helmed by the Aeronautics Development Agency (ADA), a lab of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO).
Dr Girish S Deodhare, ADA Director General, said: “LCA Mark-2 development will be completed next year.”
The HAL expressed confidence that the LCA Mark-2 that will have more powerful engines and many upgrades over the existing Tejas, to be made as per schedule with first flight being in mid-2025. For the AMCA, the ADA DG laid out targets. “We are expecting sanction of the Cabinet Committee on Security. The design is in a critical phase,” he said.
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