India's light combat aircraft (LCA) will exceed its development cost budget of Rs 2,300 crore due to the US sanctions. The figure could easily escalate by 20 to 30 per cent, said an official source.
Officials of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the nodal agency in charge of producing a world-class fighter for the Indian Air Force, are trying to persuade the defence ministry to allocate additional funds to accommodate a revised development schedule.
The fighter, scheduled to make its maiden flight by December 1998, was grounded even as it began its engine test trials due to the US firm Martin Marietta withdrawing from the programme under instructions of the US state department. The US firm is helping the ADA develop the flight control law, the most crucial software in the aircraft that controls all aircraft movements.
Another US firm, General Electric which has supplied the engines, will no longer help out in the program. ADA officials say the engines are already in their possession and the US will not be able to do much to stop the ADA from conducting flight trials. However, spares and service will be a problem.
India is developing a GE-derived indigenous engine to power the production models of the LCA. A decision was taken last month to send the engine to Russia for tests rather instead of the US. The Russian testing will mean some changes to the engine whose qualification will further delay the project.
The LCA, under development for over 15 years, is already under fire for cost and time overruns. The sanctions are sure to cause a further delay of several years as the project officials will have to source new technology vendors.
The officials said despite the setback due to the sanctions, there is no question of shutting down the programme as the government is firmly committed to support the LCA. The cost escalation will hurt ADA's "cheapest fighter in the world" sales line. The LCA is expected to carry a $15 million price tag, making it among the least expensive fighters in the world. However, this does not take into account the enormous development cost.
