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Private sector role, no choice for state-owned firms: How Tejas, Rafale making India 'Atmanirbhar'

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 1/18/2021 11:58:30 AM

New Delhi, Jan 17 PM Modi-led Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) gave the green signal for procurement of 83 Light Combat Aircraft, TEJAS MK-IA for a deal whose cumulative value would be around Rs 48,000 crore. And though it is certainly not the first major domestic defence deal for domestic companies, given a large array of missiles are already made in India, it is certainly the biggest, wherein India’s state-owned aircraft manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) would play the role of lead systems integrator and synchronize the work of around 500- odd Indian companies, along with foreign vendors, who would work simultaneously to develop different components that would eventually be integrated in HAL facilities to bring out a potent combat aircraft and would herald the first step of India towards self-sufficiency in combat craft development. For long, India has been a paradoxical enigma to the world, for being a country with one of the most efficient, innovative and nimble footed space agencies of the world, namely ISRO, and which has to its credit the launch of hundreds of satellites, mission to moon and mars, and yet the country had for decades struggled to develop a combat craft that can match the globally competitive ones. The deal for 83 TEJAS MK-1A would perhaps change all of that and is a reflection of the faith that IAF now has on this platform, which originally, though was aimed at replacing the ageing fleet of IAF’s MiG-21’s, but in terms of capabilities is far more competent than the ubiquitous MiG-21, and has the capacity to emerge, through its derivatives, as a key backbone of IAF in decades to come. The signing of the deal that would most probably happen at the Aero India show next month, would also boost the developmental work for TEJAS MK II being undertaken by ADA, HAL and DRDO. Incidentally, this proposal for acquisition of 83 TEJAS is the third tranche of order for HAL. Previously HAL had already got orders for production of 40 TEJAS MK-I in two tranches that it is now executing, albeit with considerable time overrun. The TEJAS MK-IA comes with major improvements over the baseline TEJAS MK-I version. Among the key features of the 43 improvements that TEJAS MK-IA would have, include an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) fire control radar, which would substitute the manually scanned radar, and an Electronic Warfare (EW) suite, both of which has been ordered from IAI/Elta Systems of Israel. The deal for ELM-2052 fire control radars and ELL-8222WB (wide band) self-protection jamming pods, with IAI/Elta Systems were signed in 2018. This apart, the MK-IA versions would come with air-refuelling capabilities, ability to fire Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles and above all, a far better maintainability architecture with an improved turnaround time that was sorely lacking in the baseline MK- I versions. Amidst a major stand-off with China that has been going on for more than six months now, apart from Indian Army, IAF too has been playing a key role in not just providing the logistical support through massive airlifting capability of its strategic and tactical air transport planes such as C-17, IL-76, C-130 Chinooks and AN-32, but also in the realm of surveillance and air patrolling by its fighter aircrafts, it has played a stellar role in keeping Chinese ambitions at bay. A glance at IAF’s force multiplying fleet augmentation program over the last few years would reveal that after a decade-long neglect that inflicted it with depleting squadron strengths and rising obsolescence, the turnaround for IAF started happening since around 2015 when PM Modi-led NDA government signed deals with Boeing of US for 22 Apache AH-64 combat helicopters and 15 Chinook CH-47 tactical transport helicopters for around $3 billion.