Advertisement

MoD Sanctions Rs 38k-crore For 83 LCAs

The contract and price for acquiring the aircrafts has been approved by the Defence Acquisition Council.

The defence ministry has given the consent for a Rs 38,000 crore accession of next-generation Light Combat Aircraft that have been developed indigenously, with the production likely to see private sector manufacturing components of the jets.

Orders were passed earlier for 20 LCA Tejas initial operation clearance, 20 Final Operational Clearance and now for 83 Tejas MK1A variant. 

The contract and price for acquiring 83 of the aircraft has been approved by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) led by defence minister Rajnath Singh. The validation of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) is expected shortly.

It was in 1984 that the Indian government chose to establish the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) to manage the LCA programme. While the Tejas is generally described as an output of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the responsibility for its development belongs to ADA. 

The fighters will be produced by Hindustan Aeronautics and will add to the 40 that are already on order. The maiden squadron of fighters is already in place. The new jets will be notably more competent than the first batch ordered and will have an advanced radar, an electronic countermeasures suite and the capability to launch a variety of beyond-visual-range weapons.

“The LCA is going to be the backbone of the Air Force in the future”, said the ministry. The officials are confident that the LCA Mk II will see an order book of at least 200 jets. The order has given a raise to HAL, whose order book will cross Rs 1 lakh crore once the contract is inked with the Indian Air Force. 

“This procurement will be a major boost to 'Make in India' as the aircraft is indigenously designed, developed and manufactured with the participation of local vendors apart from HAL,” the ministry of defence has stated.

The HAL aims to outsource a huge part of the estimated Rs 38,000 crore contract to the private sector as it wants to double its annual production capacity to meet the requirements of the Indian Air Force, as well as the forthcoming order for 200 more jets.

The first of the upgraded fighters will be delivered within three years and a remarkable amount of manufacturing will go to private sector companies including Larsen and Toubro, VEM Technologies, Alpha Design and Dynamatics, HAL chairman R Madhavan informed.

The outsourcing of at least 35 per cent of the work order will come as HAL puts in place infrastructure to double its capability for producing 16 of the fighter jets annually. The two biggest improvements, the new version of the jets will have is the assimilation of an Electronic Warfare Suite and an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar.

Orders have already been placed with an Israeli manufacturer for the AESA radar but in the future, the ingenious radar (named Uttam) that is presently under production will be equipped. The fighters will be configured to fire a range of beyond visual range air-to-air missiles of Israeli and Russian origin but the game-changer will be the next generation home developed Astra missile.

The LCA will replace the Russian origin jets at forward air bases, given the legendary MiG 21 fleet is expected to be grounded within four years. 



Advertisement

Around The World