Defence Secy asks HAL to take up new initiatives to aggressively compete

Bengaluru: Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane on Friday urged leading Defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to take up new initiatives to aggressively compete in the defence market and focus on new areas like unmanned vehicles, as the country is in need of these advanced systems.

Aramane today inaugurated the third LCA production line and also handed over 100th Sukhoi-30 MKI ROH (Repairs and Overhaul) aircraft to Air Vice Marshal Sarin, VSM, Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Eng A), Indian Air Force in a programme at HAL’s Nashik Division.

According to HAL, the Defence Secretary lauded its efforts in taking up the challenge of setting up an ROH facility for Su-30 MKI and also establishing a new production line for LCA manufacturing.

“The Government has come out with several ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ policies, and that puts HAL in a very important position. HAL will be producing more in the coming years. Build more systems, come out with new concepts, new platforms for future growth,” the release quoted him as saying.

He also urged HAL to take up new initiatives to aggressively compete in the defence market and look into new areas like unmanned vehicles as the country is in need of these advanced systems, and emphasized on Initiatives, Innovation and Excellence and focus on performance.

Aramane visited the LCA Assembly Complex, Su-30 ROH Flight Hangar and Final Assembly Hangar, the release added.

HAL CMD C B Ananthakrishnan said, the new production line will enable the Company to enhance LCA MK1A production capacity from 16 to 24 aircraft per year.

He said, "HAL's Nashik Division has achieved peak overhaul capacity of 20 Su-30 aircraft per year despite having supply chain issues in current geopolitical situations." HAL has already set up two LCA manufacturing facilities in Bengaluru.

HAL’s Nashik Division set up Su-30 MKI Repair and Overhaul (ROH) facility in 2014, the first-of-its-kind anywhere in the world to meet the operational requirements of the IAF.

According to the company, having gained experience from manufacturing MiG-series and Su30-MKI aircraft and subsequent overhaul of MiG-series aircraft, HAL successfully mastered the technology with valuable support from the IAF, regulatory bodies and private industries.

Several HAL sister Divisions are involved in the ROH activities, it said and added that HAL plans to reduce the dependency on OEM by indigenising majority of components required for ROH within the next 3-5 years.