The Defense Ministry has issued a tender for the purchase of indigenous fighter aircraft Tejas MK 1A. These aircraft will be manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force. 97 such light combat aircraft are to be purchased.
Its estimated cost is approximately Rs 67 thousand crores. About four months ago, the Defense Acquisition Council’s proposal for the purchase of Tejas MK 1A fighter planes was approved under the chairmanship of Defense Minister Rajnath Singh. Now its tender has been approved.
About three years ago also, the Indian Air Force had ordered 83 MK 1A fighter planes for Rs 48 thousand crore in February 2021. A few days ago, on March 28, the first Tejas MK 1A aircraft took its first flight from HAL in Bengaluru. All these 83 fighter aircraft are expected to be inducted into the Air Force by 2028. The speed of Tejas MK 1A is 2220 KM per hour. Not only this, the advanced radar installed in it makes it even more deadly.
On November 30, 2023, the Defense Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh had given its approval regarding Approval of Requirement (AON) for various capital acquisition proposals amounting to Rs 2.23 lakh crore. In these proposals, an amount of Rs 2.20 lakh crore (98 percent of the total AON amount) will be raised from domestic industries. This will give a great boost to the Indian defense industry towards achieving the goal of ‘self-reliance’.
DAC provided AON under (Indian-IDDM) for procurement of Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) for Indian Air Force and Indian Army and Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mk 1A for IAF from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Was. DAC has also granted AON for indigenous upgradation of Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft from HAL.
While the purchase of these equipment will provide immense strength to the Indian Air Force, the capability of the domestic defense industries will also reach new heights with this acquisition. This will also reduce the dependence on foreign equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to a great extent.
Further, to maximize indigenization, DAC has given its approval to a major amendment in the Defense Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020. It has been decided that henceforth, in all categories of procurement cases, a minimum of 50 per cent of procurement will be of indigenous component in the form of materials, components and software which will be manufactured in India.
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