HAL plans to boost production to meet IAF demand for 183 LCA jets
New Delhi: State-owned aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) plans to boost its Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) assembly to meet the increased demand for LCA fighter jets. This comes as the Indian Air Force plans to acquire 100 more LCA Tejas Mark 1A jets. This order, which are likely to be placed in early 2024, adds to the existing order of 83 LCA Mark 1A placed in 2021 which HAL is currently executing.
HAL has three aircraft assembly facilities, two in Bengaluru and one in Nashik, with a capacity of assembling 16 fighter jets annually.
“We will ramp up our capacity to build around 24 fighters per year in the next 18 months. This means that the entire order of 183 LCAs will be delivered to the Indian Air Force in the next eight years,” a top HAL official told News9.
Tejas to phase out MiG 21, MiG 29
The planned Tejas order is meant to compensate for the impending phase-out of the remaining squadrons of MiG 21 fighter jets. The Indian Air Force currently has three MiG 21 squadrons with around 50 aircraft which it plans to phase out by 2025. In May this year, the Air Force temporarily grounded around 50 MiG 21 aircraft after one of them crashed in Rajasthan on May 8, killing three people. This again put a spotlight on the ageing aircraft which has been involved in around 400 accidents since its inception in the 1960s in the Air Force.
The Indian Air Force also plans to phase out three squadrons of MiG 29 fighter jets by 2028.
HAL will deliver the first Mark 1A aircraft in February 2024. This order means that the indigenously made LCA Tejas fighters will be inducted in huge numbers into the Indian Air Force replacing MiG 21s and MiG 29s.
Enhancing air-power
The Indian Air Force is expected to have 40 LCAs, 180 LCA Mark-1As, and around 120 LCA Mark-2 jets in the next 15 years.
“The LCA Tejas Mark 2 is an entirely new aircraft. It is meant to replace all the Indian Air Force’s twin-engined Jaguar and Mirage-2000 aircraft. The first Mark 2 will be delivered in the next few years,” the official said.
Indian Air Force not only needs to replace its ageing MiG 21 fighter jets, it also needs to fill the gap between mandated and existing squadrons. Presently, there are 32 squadrons in the Indian Air Force against the sanctioned strength of 42 squadrons.
Its pure numbers. You have two squadrons of LCA Mark 1, and 83 aircraft on order will equip four more squadrons. That’s six squadrons. They will buy 100 more, so that would equip five more squadrons. That will make 11 LCA squadrons in all. Right now, MiG 21s are three or four squadrons, but at one time, there were more than 20 squadrons,” said Air Marshal SBP Sinha (Retd).
The Russian-build Su-30 MKI is the backbone of the IAF’s fighter fleet. There are currently 272 Su-30 MKIs in its feet. Even with the enhanced numbers, the proportion of Tejas jets is far less than the Su-30 MKI fighters.
