Govt looks beyond HAL as country to see private consortium in the sector for the first time

Looking beyond state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) in an effort to give a boost to manufacturing of transport aircraft in the country, the Defence Acquisition Council in the defence ministry on Monday gave a green signal for acquisition of 56 transport aircraft to replace Avro aircraft under a $3-billion project (approx R13,500 crore).

This will be the first time India will see a private consortium coming up in military aviation. Until now, the military aviation business has been dominated by HAL. Senior officials told FE that “A request for proposal (RfP) will be issued under ?buy and make? Indian to foreign vendors. The RfP will make it mandatory for them to select an Indian partner from the public or private sector.”

Sixteen of these aircraft will be obtained in flyway condition. The next 16 will have 30 % indigenous components and the remaining 24 will have 60% indigenisation. The first of the aircraft will be delivered four years after signing of the deal, officials said.

The Indian Air Force has shortlisted five foreign transport aircraft in the weight-class of 6-8 tonne to replace its fleet of Avro aircraft, including Russian, Ukrainian and European companies who are producing transport planes in this class.

The companies in the fray include Russian Ilyushin, Ukrainian Antonov, European EADS Casa C-295 and Italian Alenia C-27J Spartan.

The shortlisting of the vendor will be done by the IAF who will be then asked to work with private industry consortium. The IAF proposal to award the entire programme to a private Indian consortium is also prompted by the fact that HAL’s books are full, with several aircraft assembling, upgrade and other programmes under way at the public sector monopoly.

The twin-engine aircraft is planned to have a 6-8 tonne payload capacity, cruise speed of 800 km per hour range of 2,500-2,700 km and should be ready before the end of the 12th Plan.

According to officials, the DAC nod will now give an opportunity to the IAF to exploit the Indian private industry for the programme to replace aging Avro aircraft. As per the plan, the first 16 aircraft would be produced by the OEM and the remaining would be licence-produced by the consortium of private Indian industries with the help of IAF.