India to acquire 200 fighter jets for Air Force: Defence Secretary Kumar

New Delhi, January 13: India is in the process of acquiring around 200 aircraft to cope with the depleting aerial inventories of the Indian Air Force, said Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar while talking on the sidelines of commissioning Indian Coast Guard vessels in Kolkata on Sunday. He said, “The contracts for HAL-manufactured 83 LCA Tejas Mark 1 A advanced fighter jets are in the final stages.”

 

Kumar said, apart from these, Expression of Interest has been floated for another 110 aircraft, based on which Request for Proposal will be floated. He said that roughly for 200 aircraft, the acquisition is in process.

"We want to do it as soon as possible," the defence secretary said when asked whether a time frame has been finalised by which the new aircraft are to be acquired. Kumar said that with the design having been finalised, state-run aerospace behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will be ramping up production of the LCA Mark 1 A jets from 8 to 16 per year. "If required, through outsourcing, we can further enhance it," he said.

The Air Force has Sukhoi 30 MKIs, Mirage 2000s, Mig 29s and the ageing Jaguars and Mig 21 Bisons in its inventory of fighter jets at present.

The last fleet of seven swing-wing MiG-27 fighters, which played an important role during the 1999 Kargil war, was decommissioned on December 27.

After completing extensive trials on the Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF), Naval version of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) did a successful arrested landing onboard INS Vikramaditya on Saturday. Commodore Jaideep Maolankar conducted the maiden landing. Captain Dahiya was the Landing Safety Officer (LSO) and Cdr Vivek Pandey Test Director on ship whereas Gr. Capt. Kabadwal and Cdr Ankur Jain were monitoring the aircraft through telemetry from SBTF. LCA Navy has been developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).