Follows 2021 Order For 83 Aircraft From HAL

The Indian Ministry of Defence announced it has ordered an additional 97 Tejas Mk1A light fighter jets from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, consisting of 68 single-seat fighters and 29 twin-seat trainers in a deal worth over INR 620 billion, or US$ 7.1 billion.

The delivery of these aircraft is slated to begin in 2027-28 and would mean HAL needs to roll out 16 aircraft per year. The challenging rate of production surprises some who observe that HAL has yet to start deliveries for an order signed in 2021 for 73 Tejas Mk1A single-seaters and 10 of the Mk1 twin-seaters.

The Ministry executed the deal rapidly, just a month after the approval of the procurement was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

HAL has received a total number of orders for 220 of the light combat aircraft, with orders of the Tejas Mk1A alone comprising a value of INR 1.1 trillion (US$ 12.5 billion).

The current rate of production by HAL make it highly unlikely to be able to deliver accelerated deliveries of 83 Mk1A aircraft by mid-2028, as it is hoping to deliver just 11 aircraft by March 2026. In actuality, the delivery date for the 97 newly ordered Mk1As has slipped from 2032 to 2034.

One of the major changes in this last order of 97 Mk1As is their integration with Indian-developed Uttam active electronically scanned array radar, or AESA radar. It was originally supposed to be installed in most of the aircraft from first order of 83. However, those 83 will be equipped with the Israeli Elta ELM-2052 AESA radar instead.

FMI:  hal-india.co.in/