TLI Staff
New Delhi: With the Union Cabinet clearing the purchase order for 73 LCA Tejas Mk-1A fighter aircrafts and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 Trainer aircrafts at the cost of Rs 45,696 crore, MSMEs in the defence sector are set to get the much-needed shot in the arm.
As outsourcing by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, makers of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas has been on the rise, the small private players would get manufacturing and design opportunity.
Industry experts said that in case HAL decides to outsource 40% of the total work, private players would get the business to the tune of Rs 18,000 crore in the next few years.
Under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan, India has been continuously growing in its power to indigenously design, develop and manufacture advanced cutting-edge technologies and systems in the defence Sector.
“The manufacturing of Light Combat Aircraft by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will give a further push to Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative and boost indigenisation of defence production and the defence industry in the country. About 500 Indian companies including MSMEs in the design and manufacturing sectors will be working with HAL in this procurement,” an official statement after the Cabinet meeting said.
Light Combat Aircraft Mk-1A variant is an indigenously designed fourth generation fighter aircraft. This aircraft is equipped with critical operational capabilities of Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Missile, Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite and Air to Air Refuelling (AAR).
It is the first “Buy (Indian-Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured)” category procurement of combat aircrafts with an indigenous content of 50% which will progressively reach 60% by the end of the programme,” the press statement said.
In its meeting on Wednesday, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also approved infrastructure development by Indian Air Force (IAF) under the project to enable them handle repairs or servicing at their base depot so that the turnaround time would get reduced for mission critical systems and would lead to increased availability of aircraft for operational exploitation.
This would enable IAF to sustain the fleet more efficiently and effectively due to availability of repair infrastructure at respective bases.