Article Posted on : - Nov 11, 2010

NEW DELHI (PTI): The Indian Air Force (IAF) has fitted autopilots on 55 of its Jaguar fighter jets after a government audit report had slammed the Defence Ministry over delays in the upgrade programme.

Defence Minister A K Antony told Rajya Sabha that his Ministry will soon issue a tender for procuring additional sets of autopilots for the remaining Jaguars in the IAF fleet.

IAF has over 100 of this Anglo-French fighter aircraft in its fleet.

"Autopilots have already been fitted on 55 Jaguar aircraft of the Indian Air Force. The Comptroller and Auditor General had raised the issue of delay in induction of autopilot in its report of 2008-09 for the year ended March 31, 2008," he said in a written reply.

Antony said the Ministry had agreed with the audit conclusions regarding delay in the procurement process.

"After confirming full operationalisation of the already installed autopilots, a request for proposal is being issued for procurement of additional sets of autopilots for the remaining Jaguar aircraft," he added.