In a bid to enhance India’s domestic aerospace industry, Prime Minister Modi led Cabinet approved the procurement of 73 LCA Tejas Mk-1A fighter aircraft and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 Trainer aircraft on 13 January 2021.
The cost of 73 LCA Tejas Mk-1A fighter aircraft and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 Trainer aircraft is Rs. 45,696 crores along with Design and Development of Infrastructure sanctions worth Rs.1,202 crores.
The Cabinet has also approved infrastructure development by IAF under the project, enabling IAF to sustain the fleet more efficiently and effectively due to availability of repair infrastructure at respective bases. This will reduce the turnaround time for ‘mission-critical systems’ with an increase in their availability for ‘operational exploitation’.
The CCS chaired by PM Sh. @narendramodi today approved the largest indigenous defence procurement deal worth about 48000 Crores to strengthen IAF’s fleet of homegrown fighter jet ‘LCA-Tejas’. This deal will be a game changer for self reliance in the Indian defence manufacturing.
— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh)
January 13, 2021
In a tweet, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh stated that this is the largest indigenous defence procurement deal worth about 48,0000 crores to strengthen IAF’s fleet of homegrown fighter jet ‘LCA-Tejas’.
Earlier, IAF issued a tender for procurement of Tejas aircraft manufactured by state-run HAL. As a part of its order, IAF has already inducted a batch of the said aircraft.
IAF inducts LCA Tejas: All you need to know about the 18 Squadron aircraft
LCA Tejas Mk-1A
1- Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mk-1A is an indigenously designed, developed and manufactured state-of-the-art modern 4+ generation fighter aircraft.
2- It 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) to meet the operational requirements of Indian Air Force, IAF.
3- LCA Tejas Mk-1A is the first ‘Buy (Indian-Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured)’ category.
4- It has an indigenous content of 50% which will reach 60% by the end of the programme.
5- LCA-Tejas will incorporate a large number of new technologies many of which were never attempted in India.
Under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, India is indigenously designing, developing and manufacturing advanced cutting edge technologies and systems in the Defence Sector.
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will boost the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative and indigenisation of defence production and the defence industry in India. For this, HAL has already set-up second line manufacturing facilities at its Nasik and Bengaluru divisions.
The programme will act as a catalyst for transforming the Indian aerospace manufacturing ecosystem into a vibrant Atmanirbhar-self-sustaining ecosystem. It will also create new job opportunities.
It is to be noted that around 500 Indian companies including MSMEs in the design and manufacturing sectors will be working with HAL in this procurement.
Source: PIB, Defence Ministry
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