India is now poised to give preliminary approval to three mega indigenous projects to manufacture another aircraft carrier, 97 more Tejas fighters and 156 Prachand light combat helicopters, which will be worth around Rs 1.4 crore.
The Rajnath Singh-led Defense Acquisition Council is likely to take “acceptance of necessity (AoN)” — the first step in the procurement process — for three key projects at a meeting scheduled for November 30, according to a report in The Times of India.
Once the AoNs are approved, tendering and trade negotiations will take place before the three deals are presented to the Cabinet Committee on Security for the final nod.
All of these projects, which will take several years to complete, are critical to bolstering the country’s operational military readiness in the face of China’s expanding multi-domain warfare capabilities.
The 97 Tejas Mark-1A fighters at a cost of around Rs 55,000 crore will be in addition to the 83 such jets already ordered under the Rs 46,898 crore contract signed with Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) in February 2021.
The 180 Tejas jets are critical for the IAF to boost its fighter squadrons, which have dwindled to just 31 when at least 42 are needed to fight China and Pakistan. The first 83 Mark-1A jets are scheduled for delivery in the timeframe from February 2024 to February 2028.
It will take 8-10 years to build the second indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-2) at the Cochin shipyard, in the order at around Rs 40,000 crore as a ‘repeat order’ of the 44,000 tonne INS Vikrant or IAC- 1.
INS Vikrant was commissioned in September 2022 after being built at a cost of around Rs 20,000 crore, but will not be fully operational until mid-2024. The Navy also has an older aircraft carrier of Russian origin, INS Vikramaditya, the refurbished Admiral Gorshkov commissioned in November 2013 at based on an agreement with Russia worth 2.33 billion dollars.
The Navy currently has only 40 of the 45 MiG-29K aircraft brought in from Russia for an additional $2 billion to operate from aircraft carriers. The twin-engine airborne fighter being developed by the DRDO is likely to take at least a decade to become fully operational. Meanwhile, India is now finalizing the acquisition of 26 Rafale-Marine fighter jets from France for Rs 50,000 crore.
156 Prachand helicopters (90 for Army, 66 IAF), capable of attack operations at high altitudes like Siachen Glacier and eastern Ladakh, will cost around Rs 45,000 crore.
They will add to the 15 such helicopters (10 IAF and 15 Army) already inducted under the first contract worth Rs 3,887 crore in March last year. The need for a mountain-capable helicopter like the 5.8-tonne Prachand, which is armed with 20mm turret guns, 70mm rocket systems and air-to-air missiles, was first acutely felt during the 1999 Kargil conflict.
The Navy, for its part, originally wanted the 65,000-tonne nuclear-powered IAC-2, capable of carrying a larger air complement than the 30-plane capacity of the INS Vikrant. But due to budget constraints, he opted for the smaller electric-powered IAC-2.
Incidentally, China already operates two aircraft carriers, the Liaoning and the Shandong, and is rapidly building two more. A third Chinese carrier, Fujian of more than 80,000 tons, was “launched” in June last year. The US, of course, has 11 “super” 100,000 ton nuclear carriers, each carrying 80-90 fighters and aircraft.
