Panaji, Dec 8 (Inditop.com) Despite a pending order from the Indian Air Force (IAF) for 20 light combat aircraft (LCA), India can manufacture only eight such aircraft annually, a senior Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) official has said.
N. Shyama Rao, project director at the ADA, said Tuesday that while only eight LCA could be manufactured annually, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), a public sector undertaking unit involved in the manufacture of the LCA, would undertake a massive recruitment drive in order to expand the scope of production of the fighter planes.
“Currently we can manufacture 8 aircraft per annum, which is extendable up to 12,” Rao said at a press conference at the INS Hansa, a naval base in Goa 30 km from here.
He also said that HAL in the near future could recruit nearly 500 officers to meet the challenge.
While the IAF has already ordered 20 LCA to be delivered by 2013, they are expected to order 20 more of the fighter craft which was christened Tejas by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The LCA will replace the IAF’s ageing Mig 21-fleet, while the naval version of the LCA will replace the maritime force’s fleet of Sea Harriers.
“Even the Indian Navy will be ordering the LCA once the ski jump trials are validated,” Air Vice Marshal Shankar Mani told reporters, adding that the naval version was still in the prototype phase.
The ski jump trials, which are compulsory for the naval version of the LCA, will enable the fighter craft to land and take off from the deck of aircraft carriers. “After spending some initial years on shore bases, the LCAs will also be posted onboard the Gorshkov, once it joins the Indian fleet,” Mani said.
He said addition of the LCA to the IAF fleet would help close the gap between the subsonic Kiran aircraft and the supersonic Mig 21.
Armed with air to air, air to ground missiles and a bomb carrying a 1,000 pound payload, the LCA, which clocked in excess of 1,350 kmph during a trial off Goa Tuesday, is expected to cost Rs.150 crore per aircraft.
P.N. Subramanium, project director at the ADA, said the LCA represented fourth generation technology. “The LCA is contemporary in every sense, whether it is in terms of sensors, electronic systems, technology, weaponry, etc,” he said.
The indigenously made fighter plane which has been flown by more than a dozen test pilots so far will be ready for induction into the IAF by 2010.
