MILITARY SUPPLIES from Israel may experience delays due to the ongoing conflict with Iran, but India has sufficient stocks to meet its needs for the current year, said D K Sunil, Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, on Thursday.
He said he is hopeful that the issue will be addressed once the war ends. He also said drawing from the lessons of the ongoing conflict, HAL has put its weight behind CATS Warrior — a low-observable unmanned combat aerial vehicle — that it is developing.
“What has happened is, because of the bombardment from Iran, the plants (in Israel) have shut down, so there will be a delay. We have enough stocks for the current year; I hope that it (Israel) will catch up. Once this war peters out, things will come back to normal,” Sunil told The Indian Express on the sidelines of a media interaction.
Over the last decade, India has purchased a range of military equipment and weapons from Israel including missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, sensors and radars, air defence systems and small arms.
For the indigenous fighter jet Tejas, manufactured by HAL, the radars, electronic warfare suite and the helmet-mounted displays are procured from Israel.
“So, there may be a delay, but generally, what we have seen is that they catch up. Initially, when this war started, their plants shut down. We had our people there working with them, but once it became serious, they asked us to withdraw our people and we called them back,” he said. “So, we will just wait and watch,” he added.
Asked about the lesson and trends emerging from the ongoing war influencing future military projects of HAL, Sunil told The Indian Express that the CATS Warrior is essentially its foray into the area. “These will be UCAVs, which can carry weapons and will be remotely piloted. We are focusing on that area. Today, we are building a 3-tonne prototype, and then this will gradually increase in class, from 3 tonne to five and seven tonne.”
“We are focusing on that area where we are having the bigger impact. The kind of SHAHED (Iranian) drones you’re seeing are very small and very low cost, and there are a lot of players in the market today. A lot of startups are doing that already.”
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“We are seeing almost every day somebody has got something similar, like the SHAHED, which they are now testing, so we are not going into that space,” he said.
The CATS Warrior, he said, is a self-funded project. “We have done the detailed design. The parts are under manufacture, and the fuselage is also under manufacture, so it is in the prototyping stage,” he told The Indian Express.
Responding to questions from the media over the delivery of the Tejas Mk 1A jets, which have been significantly delayed, their current status, and the possible revised timeline for delivery to the Indian Air Force, Sunil said five jets are ready with the engines, and the sixth engine from GE Aerospace is on its way.
He said that GE assured HAL that 20 engines would be delivered between June and December.
It is learnt that the contract with GE includes a provision stating that if there is a delay in the delivery of F-404 engines for the Light Combat Aircraft, liquidated damages will be imposed on GE and accordingly, the cost is being imposed as per the contract.
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Sunil said a major review of the status of the LCA Mk 1 A delivery is expected with the IAF next month, which will help finalise the delivery timelines.
Asked when the existing squadrons of LCA Tejas would be operational — they underwent extensive maintenance checks following one of the aircraft being involved in an accident at a forward air base last month — he said the jets are set to fly again next week onwards as a flaw detected in the braking software has been fixed.
Asked about possible plans to get Russian Su-57 fighter jets for the IAF, he said presentations have been made to the Air Force team regarding the capabilities of the aircraft.
“We have had one estimation of the capacity of our plants for the Russian equipment. A committee of Russians has also studied and said that roughly 50% of the facilities can be used for producing this aircraft, but some new investments will be required,” he said.
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“We are awaiting the Russian quotation about the investment. Then we will approach the Air Force that these are the kind of numbers required to produce these aircraft and these are the timelines,” he said.
