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Tejas Jet
India is looking at taking domestic defence production to 100 per cent as dependence on foreign military supplies creates "strategic vulnerability", Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday. Singh said this after inaugurating a third production line of Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)-Mk1A and a second manufacturing facility of trainer jet HTT-40. With opening of the new facility for Tejas jets, the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is expected to produce at least 24 LCA aircraft. "There was a time when the country was dependent on other countries to meet its defence needs, and almost 65-70 percent of defence equipment was imported," Singh said in his address "But today, this situation has changed; now India is doing 65 per cent manufacturing on its own soil," he said. "Very soon, we will take our domestic manufacturing to 100 per cent as well," he said. Singh said India's defence export has reached a record Rs 25,000 crore which was less than Rs 1,000 crore few years ago. "
American defence major GE Aerospace has handed over another jet engine to state-run aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) for its Tejas light combat aircraft programme, officials said on Wednesday. The company had delivered one F404-IN20 engine to HAL around three weeks back. Another engine was delivered on September 30, the officials said. In the next couple of weeks, the HAL will deliver two Tejas MK1A jets to the IAF, they said. In February 2021, the defence ministry sealed a Rs 48,000-crore deal with HAL for the procurement of 83 Tejas Mk-1A jets for the IAF. GE Aerospace had been missing several deadlines for the supply of its aero engines to power the jets. The IAF is looking at inducting the warplanes as the number of its fighter squadrons has gone down to 31 from the officially sanctioned strength of 42. Tejas is a single-engine multi-role fighter aircraft capable of operating in high-threat air environments. It has been designed to undertake the air defence, .
American defence major GE Aerospace on Wednesday said it delivered the first of 99 F-404 aircraft engines to the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Tejas light combat jet programme. State-run HAL is procuring the engines to power the Mk-1A variant of the Tejas jets. In February 2021, the defence ministry sealed a Rs 48,000 crore deal with HAL for the procurement of 83 Tejas MK-1A jets for the IAF. The deliveries were to begin in March last year. However, not a single aircraft has been delivered yet. The start of supply of the F404-IN20 engines by the American aircraft defence major is expected to help the HAL start delivery of the jets to the IAF. Defence sources indicated that delay in the delivery of the engines by GE Aerospace was one of the reasons for HAL to miss the deadline for supply of the Tejas jets to the IAF. It is learnt that the engine has been delivered to the HAL by the American company at its manufacturing facility in Lynn near Massachusetts. The engine
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully conducted high-altitude trials of an indigenous life support system for pilots onboard Tejas light combat aircraft. The defence ministry said cutting-edge life support systems have been designed to generate and regulate breathable oxygen for pilots during flight, eliminating dependence on traditional cylinder-based oxygen. The trials were conducted on Tuesday. With appropriate modifications, the system can also be adapted for use in MiG-29K and other aircraft, the ministry said. "The Defence Bio-Engineering & Electro Medical Laboratory, a Bengaluru-based lab under the DRDO successfully conducted high-altitude trials of the Indigenous On-Board Oxygen Generating System (OBOGS)-based Integrated Life Support System (ILSS) for the LCA Tejas aircraft on March 4," the it said. The ILSS underwent rigorous testing on the LCA-prototype vehicle-3 aircraft of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) meeting stringent ...