New Delhi: The government will officially make a deal of 48000 crore rupees for the Indian Air Force to purchase 83 Tejas Fighter Aircraft from the Government Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. This will be the largest indigenous defense procurement deal ever.
The contract will be signed during the ‘Aero India’ aerospace exhibition in Bengaluru in the presence of Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, top Air Force officers and senior officers of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), officials said on Tuesday.
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), headed by the Prime Minister, on 13 January approved the purchase of 83 Tejas aircraft at a cost of about Rs 48,000 crore under domestic defense procurement. It consists of 73 light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas MK-1A aircraft and 10 Tejas MK-1 training aircraft.
The Tejas MK-1A is a state-of-the-art fourth generation fighter aircraft designed, developed and manufactured indigenously. The aircraft is equipped with electronically scanned Active Array (AESA) radar, out of scope of visibility (BVR), missiles, electronic warfare technology (EW) and air refueling capability (AAR).
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday inaugurated a new manufacturing plant in Bengaluru which will double the production of Tejas. On this occasion, Singh said that the purchase of Tejas fighter aircraft would greatly increase the capacity of the Indian Air Force. Chairman and Managing Director of HAL R. Madhavan said in an interview to PTI-Bhasha last month that Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) supplies to the Air Force would start from March 2024 and about 16 aircraft would be supplied every year till a total of 83 aircraft were supplied. .
Madhavan said that the original cost of the aircraft is Rs 25 thousand crore while Rs 11 thousand crore will be used for development of accessories and other infrastructure at the airports. At the same time, about seven thousand crores will be spent on customs duty and GST. The president of HAL said that the cost of each fighter version of the aircraft would be Rs 309 crore and the cost of the training aircraft is Rs 280 crore. Of the total cost of 48 thousand crores, 2500 crores is the design and development cost which will be given to the Aeronautical Development Agency and about 2250 crores has been kept for foreign currency exchange rate.
