Government is rapidly losing out on creating Low Combat Aircraft for India

The Indian Government is considering to handover project for improved version of ‘Tejas’ fighter planes to private sector for efficient and time bound execution.

Fed up with a string of delays and design flaws, the government wants to rope in a private player for Light Combat Aircraft, or LCA, programme.

Sources told Economic Times that discussions have taken place in the top echelons of the government to expedite Tejas programme.

If the plan gets a go-ahead, private players would have a potential order for more than 160 improved Tejas Mk II fighters that the Indian Air Force desperately needs to plug vital operational gaps.

The feels that the state-run agencies, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and the defence ministry's Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), involved in the LCA do not have the capacity to meet the order.

"It is very clear that the LCA programme cannot be allowed to go on as it is. There are not enough resources available to complete the project in the timeline required. A private company would be accountable and would invest in the project," a senior official aware of the government's thinking told ET on the condition of anonymity.

The financial daily reported that another proposal suggested setting up of a special purpose vehicle for the project in which DRDO and HAL, the entities now responsible for the LCA, could be partners along with the private sector.

Meanwhile, experts are of the opinion that the improved version of the fighter jets will have the potential for exports also.

"An improved version of the fighter that meets air force requirements would also have a good export potential. The numbers could go up significantly if India promotes it in and around the region as an affordable fighter," another official told ET.

With the government ever received an order, each fighter would cost a few hundreds of cores of rupees, boosting 'Make in India' cause.

Reportedly, the LCA was conceived in the early 1980s as an aircraft that would replace the Russia-made MIG 21. But, three decades have passed and the Air Force is still to get even a single squadron of these indigenously produced fighters.

India’s neighbours, China and Pakistan, have squadrons of indigenously developed fighter aircraft.

(Image: Indiatimes)