The Centre on Wednesday cleared a Rs 46,898 crore deal to manufacture 83 indigenous Tejas LCA MK-1A fighter jets for the Indian Air Force, giving a major boost to the domestic aviation industry.
The Cabinet Committee on Security, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved purchasing 73 LCA Tejas Mk-1A fighter aircraft and ten such advanced trainer aircraft at a cost of Rs 45,696 crore along with establishment of supporting infrastructure worth Rs 1,202 crore at the base repair depots, a defence ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
The new aircraft – the Mark-1A version – would be having 43 “improvements” from the first lot of 40 LCA Tejas that the IAF had earlier purchased from the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Bengaluru at a price of Rs 8,802 crore.
The LCA Mk-1A variant would be a home-grown state-of-the-art modern fourth-generation fighter aircraft equipped with critical operational capabilities such as Active Electronically Scanned Array radar, Beyond Visual Range missile, a brand new electronic warfare suite and air-to-air refuelling pods, making it a potent platform to meet the IAF operational needs.
“The LCA-Tejas is going to be the backbone of the IAF fighter fleet in years to come. It incorporates a large number of new technologies many of which were never attempted in India. The indigenous content of LCA-Tejas is 50% in the Mk1A variant that will be enhanced to 60%,” tweeted Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
Singh said that HAL set up second line manufacturing facilities at its Nashik and Bengaluru divisions to ensure timely delivery of the aircraft. The delivery is expected to commence three years after the aviation major inks a commercial agreement with the Defence Ministry.
“The production rate for this increased requirement by IAF is being augmented by HAL from 8 to 16 aircraft per year through the creation of a state-of-the-art new facility in Bengaluru,” said R Madhavan, chairman and managing director of the HAL.
The IAF currently has two LCA squadrons – 45 Squadron (Flying Daggers) and 18 Squadron (Flying Bullets) – flying these home-grown jets. Though both are based in Sulur, the first unit fly the aircraft with an IOC (Initial Operational Clearance) configuration whereas the second one uses the Tejas LCA in FOC (Full Operational Clearance) configuration.
Apart from all the capabilities of IOC aircraft, the FOC variant additionally comes with air-to-air refuelling capability, close combat gun, additional drop tanks, BVR missile capability, updated avionics and flight control software suite. It reduces the maintenance man hours and turn-around time resulting in enhanced support for IAF missions.
The Mark-1A version would be having several other improvements from the FOC including digital radar warning receivers, external self-protection jammers and better maintainability for which additional infrastructure would be required.
The Cabinet has approved creation of such infrastructure enabling the IAF to handle repairs or servicing at their base depot so that the turnaround time would get reduced further for mission-critical systems, leading to an increased availability of aircraft for operations.
The new LCA-MK1A project, according to Madhavan, would spawn a national aerospace ecosystem with the participation of nearly 560 companies and generate more than 5,000 jobs across the country. "The LCA-Tejas programme would act as a catalyst for transforming the Indian aerospace manufacturing ecosystem,” the defence minister said.