Indian public sector aerospace and defence manufacturer HAL, which currently has the capacity to build eight Light Combat Aircraft per year, intends to take up to 24 in the course of the next three years.

HAL Aims To Raise Annual LCA Production

Indian public sector aerospace and defence manufacturer HAL, which currently has the capacity to build eight Light Combat Aircraft per year, intends to take up to 24 in the course of the next three years.

“At present, we have our capacity at around six in numbers. Our LCA Tejas division as well as the aircraft division are producing; there are two lines over there that are capable of producing 16 numbers. So, this is what has been planned as per the contracted delivery schedule. But we wanted to increase this capacity to 24 numbers at the minimum,” the CMD of HAL, CB Ananthakrishnan.

The first version of the Tejas LCA aircraft was inducted into the IAF in 2016. Currently, two squadrons of IAF, 45 Squadron and 18 Squadron, are fully operational with LCA Tejas. An order worth Rs 36,468 crore for delivery of 83 LCA Mk 1A aircraft has been placed with HAL and delivery is scheduled to begin by February 2024, a latest Ministry of Defence statement read. More than Rs 9,000 crore has been sanctioned for the development of LCA Mk 2, an updated and more lethal version of LCA Tejas.

To further promote indigenisation, including the aircraft engine, the Transfer of Technology for manufacturing of the GE engine in India has been negotiated with GE during the Prime Minister’s visit to the US in June 2023. Tejas will be the largest fleet of fighter aircraft to be operated by the Indian Air Force in the coming years.

PM MODI Flies The Fighter Jet ‘Tejas’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a sortie on the indigenously built light combat fighter aircraft Tejas in Bengaluru on 25 Nov 2023.