The Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), which will have to compete with private firms for manufacturing India’s indigenous fifth generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme, has welcomed the government’s move to involve private players.

In May, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved the execution model for AMCA and opened the doors for the private sector to compete with the Bengaluru-headquartered defence PSU to manufacture the indigenous fifth generation fighter jet.

End of monopoly

This move ended the monopoly which HAL enjoyed for years when it came to the building prototypes and manufacturing of fighter jets.

HAL chairman and managing director D.K. Sunil said that the PSU had no problem with this move by the government.

“We have no problem with that; we are a very capable company and we are not really afraid of competition. The idea is to develop alternative players to HAL so we are ok with that. We will definitely participate [in the bidding] and we are willing to work with partners to see how to take it forward,” Dr. Sunil told The Hindu.

“I would not take it in a negative sense that our monopoly is ending in that sense. We are a government company and we have been working since 85 years in the interest of the nation; so I think we are ok with that. We do not see any issue in that,” he added.

Under discussion

Asked if HAL had responded to the Expression of Interest (EoI) issued by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) which is executing the programme, Dr. Sunil said, “The last date is sometime in August. So we will definitely work on this. We are still discussing, we are looking at the details of how the evaluation will be done. We have already issued an EoI to 21 of our partners who have responded that they are interested.”

He added that there were three options before HAL — either to go solo or as a consortium, or go as a joint venture — and that it will evaluate and take a decision in the coming month.

LCA delays

On the delay in the delivery schedule for the LCA Mk-1A variant and on the criticism by Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh, the HAL chairman reiterated that it was due to the GE Aerospace missing deadline for supply of engines.

“The primary reason is the engine. When he (IAF chief) mentioned in February (about not being confident of HAL during Aero India) we did not have a single engine from GE though the airframe was ready,” Dr. Sunil said. He added that the first engine came in April and that GE had promised the second engine in July.

“Apart from the engines we also have issues regarding the software, the radar, and the missiles. There have been some issues with iterations of the software so both these issues contributed but the engine was the most dominant,” he added.