The Indian Air Force has formally asked the
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to submit
its proposal for making 83 additional Tejas
fighter jets.Of these, 73 will be the upgraded
version called the ‘Mark-1A’ and 10 will
be the trainer version – a twin seat version–
that will be as per specifications allowed
in the variant okayed for existing final operational
clearance (FOC).
The HAL will submit its proposal within 90
days that is by March next year.
HAL is already making 40 Tejas jets as per
the FOC standards set by the IAF.
At present pace, the Mark 1-A can first be
ready for first flight by 2019.The Tribune
had first reported on November 14 how the
Ministry of Defence (MoD) was clearing the
hurdles to the project and was more interested
in ‘Make in India’ project of the light
combat aircraft, Tejas.
On November 7 last year, the Defence Acquisition
Council, chaired by then Defence Minister
Manohar Parrikar, approved the procurement
of 83 planes of the ‘Mark1-A’ version.
But a formal order is yet to be placed.
It was almost two years ago, in December 2015,
that the IAF indicated the requirement of
100 Tejas LCA MK 1-A aircraft, for which a
formal order is yet to be placed.
The plan of manufacturing and completion is
from 2018 to 2022-23.
The seeking of proposal from HAL, an MoD owned
public sector undertaking, is the first step
towards getting these jets.There are 123 Tejas
jets – in two variants — that the MoD
is looking at.
Forty planes of the base version have been
ordered and are under production.
The Mark 1-A version will have 43 upgrades
over the base version.
The IAF wants AESA radar in place of the manually
scanned Israeli Elta radar.
Besides it wants a ‘self-protection jammer’,
fitted with external re-fuelling capability.Besides,
the MoD has Rs 1,331-crore plan to double
the existing eight planes per annum capacity
of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
