In a major boost to Aatmanirbhar Bharat, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed a contract with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for 240 AL-31FP Aero Engines for the Su-30MKI aircraft at a cost of over Rs 26,000 crore. The contract was inked by the senior officials of MoD and HAL in the presence of Defence Secretary Shri Giridhar Aramane and Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari in New Delhi earlier today.
These aeroengines will be manufactured by the Koraput Division of HAL and are expected to fulfil the need of the Indian Air Force to sustain the operational capability of the Su-30 fleet for the defence preparedness of the country. HAL would supply 30 aero-engines per annum as per the contractual delivery schedule. The supply of all 240 engines would be completed over the period of next eight years.
During the manufacturing, HAL plans to take support from the country’s defence manufacturing ecosystem, involving MSMEs and public & private industries. By the end of the delivery programme, HAL would enhance the indigenisation content up to 63% to achieve an average of over 54% for these jet engines. This would also help increase the indigenous content of Repair and Overhaul tasks of the aero-engines.
The Indian Air Force has nearly 260 Sukhoi-30 MKIs in service. These fighters are considered the backbone of the IAF and form 13 squadrons of the force. The Fourth Fighter Squadron of the IAF, also known as the ‘Oorials’ converted to the type in October last year after flying different variants of the fighter since February 1966, a total of well over 58 years.
The Sukhoi-30 MKIs in IAF service are regularly being upgraded. Most of the upgrades to the aircraft are indigenous in nature. The entire fleet of Su-30s will soon be armed with the Astra air-to-air Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missile family enhancing the lethality of the already potent fighter aircraft. Efforts are on to equip the aircraft with an indigenous AESA radar called the Virupaksha, an upscaled version of the Uttam Radar that will equip the Tejas fleet.
Team Bharatshakti
