New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Monday did a review of all projects undertaken by state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) including the progress on the much-delayed delivery of the Tejas MK1 A.
The review meeting was attended by Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen N S Raja Subramani, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal A P Singh, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh and Secretary Defence Production Sanjeev Kumar and Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of HAL, Ravi Kota.
Sources said that during the meeting, Kota gave an overview of each project and their status. The primary concern was the delivery of the Tejas MK1A which was to begin from April 2024, they added.
Sources further said that the CMD spoke about the progress being made in the project since he took over and felt that the major pending works will be completed over the next two months after which the delivery would start.
They added that the defence minister was of the view that HAL should sit down with the IAF and come up with a reasonable timeline, and that it should not overpromise and under-deliver.
“You should stick to your commitment,” Rajnath was quoted as telling the HAL CMD.
Sources said that based on the presentation, the Defence Ministry is of the view that the deliveries could start in October, notwithstanding the timeline given by HAL. Incidentally, October-end is when the current chief superannuates.
The government has been upset with the HAL and its former CMD D K Sunil for giving a new timeline for finishing work as the previous one comes to end.
“HAL cannot just simply overpromise when it comes to timeline and then extend it,” a source said.
As reported by ThePrint on multiple occasions earlier, the delay is not limited to just engine delivery by American firm GE.
To ensure faster induction, IAF has agreed to grant multiple concessions to HAL but has also drawn clear red lines on what it would and would not accept before inducting the fighter aircraft.
Those red lines relate directly to the aircraft’s combat capability, particularly its missile firing functionality, radar integration and the performance of its Electronic Warfare (EW) systems.
Sources said that while the IAF can start inducting the Tejas with certain kinds of weapon firing capabilities, it cannot operate a radar with non-integrated radar and electronic warfare system.
There are four items, the sources further said, for which the IAF has said it is unwilling to compromise. Some of these pending works, added sources, might be completed just a year from now.
The fresh concessions are an expanded version of the exemptions decided between the IAF and the defence ministry earlier in February.
The pending deficiencies were categorised as ‘minor’, ‘major’, and ‘not acceptable’.
Sources said the IAF was now willing to accept some deficiencies categorised earlier as ‘major’.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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