The Indian Air Force (IAF) has decided to shelve three major acquisition projects worth Rs. 8000 crore as the central government push for indigenisation.
These projects included IAF’s plan to buy 20 additional Hawk Planes from Britain, 38 Pilatus basic trainer aircraft, and the plan to upgrade 30 Jaguar fighter planes with engines from the United States.
The Air Force Chief RKS Bhadauria informed that they will not be going forward with the planned projects and plans have been shelved at the moment for different reasons including Make in India.
Key Highlights:
• Air Force Chief RK Bhadauria informed on May 18 that the force will not be going forward with the additional Pilatus basic trainer aircraft that were intending to buy.
• Additional hawks (trainer aircraft) were also in the plan but they have been but the purchase has been shelved at the moment.
• There was also a Jaguar re-engining plan which was totally imported but the force has decided to shelve that project as well. The plan was to equip Jaguar fighter aircraft with new engines from Honeywell Corporation from the US.
• The deal of 20 additional hawk planes that have been expected to worth around Rs. 2000 crore has been shelved as the project was stuck for over 3-4 years mainly because of the price of the planes.
IAF supports Make in India:
Indian Air Force Chief RK Bhadauria stated that the force will be going to go in with the HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) support and some other engine related upgrades that will be helpful to see through the fleet.
He further informed that the plans to acquire 38 additional Pilatus basic training aircraft that was worth around Rs. 1000 crore from Switzerland has been scrapped as HAL is already in the advanced stages of development of the HTT-40 trainer planes. The chief added that the force will buy 70 of these Made in India planes.
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