India plans to crank up Tejas production to stem IAF’s depletion in fighters | India News

Nueva Delhi: With the former US General UU. Electric promising the revised delivery of aerodynamic engineers for tile airplanes from March, India plans to progressively increase the production of the very delayed indigenous light combat planes and stop the rapid exhaustion of combat squads in IAF.
The Hindust Aeronautics (HAL) tile manufacturing already has three tiles Mark-1a “ready in the flight line”, which will be equipped with the GE-F404 Turbofan Jet engines once they begin to arrive in March. “Hal will have five Mark-1a tile jets and four coaches ready for March-April. If the ge engines begin to come, Fits can be made in a few days, ”said a defense official superior to Toi.
Although the integration of advanced electronic warfare systems and Israeli radars in the tiles Mark-1A has been completed, the work is being carried out soon to test the indigenous missile Astra Air-Air from the one-engine plane, who made his first flight in March last year.
The delivery of 99 GE-404 engines, which HAL hired 5,375 million rupees in August 2021, but has been delayed in almost two years, is very important. GE has now promised to start the delivery next month, with 12 engines that will be delivered in 2026 and 20 every year since then, said another official.
Depending on the supply of engines, Hal argues that production can progressively expand to 20 tiles per year, and then to 24 per year, with the third production line now functional in Nashik to add the two existing in Bengaluru.
“The first tiles Mark-1a should leave the Nashik line in a month or two. Hal is also subcontracting private companies to build wings, fuselages and the like. If they deliver, tile production can even rise to 30 per year, ”he said.
The wait, however, has been unbearable for IAF. The head of the air chief, AP Singh, last month publicly expressed frustration for the enormous delays in the fourth generation of tiles, while China recently showed two new sixth generation fighters.
IAF so far has only 38 of the first 40 tile combatants Hal under the RS 46,898 million rupees in February 2021, now lucky it will be delivered in a couple of months. The order for other 97 Mark-1A tile combatants per RS ​​67,000 million rupees is also in process.
These 220 aircraft, along with 108 variants of Mark-2 tiles with more powerful engines, are critical for the IAF, up to only 30 combat squads when authorized 42.5 to address the twin challenge of China and Pakistan.
Hal and GE, of course, are now carrying out the final technological negotiations for the co-production of the GEN-F414 engines in India, with 80% of the transfer of technology for around $ 1.5 billion.
These engines, in the 98 Kilonewton thrust class, will feed the tile fighters-2 for a longer combat range and a greater capacity to transport weapons than existing fighters.
In August 2022, the cabinet security committee had eliminated the development of Mark-2 tiles with prototypes, flight and certification tests for more than 9,000 million rupees.
While the tiles-1 (weight of 13.5 tons of 13.5 tons) was destined to replace the obsolete mig-21, the Mark-2 variant (17.5 tons) will succeed fighters such as the Mirage-200000, Jaguars and MiG-29 in The IAF combat fleet.