Indian Air force may buy 83 LCAs from HAL

The Indian Air Force on Wednesday asked the Bengaluru-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to submit a detailed proposal on the manufacturing of 83 advanced version of the indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft at a cost of nearly Rs 60,000 crore.

The decision sets in motion a process to acquire more of the indigenous fighter jets to make up for the IAF's depleting squadron strength.

"IAF on Wednesday issued the Request for Proposal to the HAL for 83 more Tejas Mark-1A," said an official. HAL is to respond by March 2018, sources said.

IAF ordered 40 Tejas LCA in its basic configuration- called Initial



Operational Clearance (IOC) - from the HAL, which already delivered five of them. The balance is expected to be handed over to the IAF by 200-21.

LCA received the IOC from the regulator in December 2013. However, it is still far away from obtaining the Final Operational Clearance, which has now been rescheduled to 2018 end.

The official letter comes more than a year after the Defence Acquisition Council, headed by then defence minister Manohar Parrikar, approved the procurement of 83 Tejas in Mark-1 configuration.

The Mark-1 version would have 43 additional upgrades as against the IOC version.