Article Posted on : - Nov 22, 2016

Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas. A PTI photo.

NEW DELHI (PTI): The government has said that indigenous content of the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas is 59.7 per cent by value and 75.5 per cent by numbers.

In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said on Friday that several parts of Tejas is of foreign origin.

Out of total 344 LRUs (Line Replaceable Units) involved in the system level of LCA, a total of 210 LRUs have been produced indigenously and balance 134 LRUs are being imported from foreign companies, he said.

"Indigenous content of the LCA Tejas Aircraft is 59.7% by value and 75.5% by numbers," he added.

To reduce dependence on foreign companies, out of the 134 imported LRUs, the indigenisation of 42 units is under progress.

Further efforts are being made by way of indigenisation with the objective to reduce the import content progressively, he said.

Consolidation of technical specification of imported units have been carried out and they are being projected for indigenisation by private companies, DRDO labs and HAL divisions.

In a few cases, HAL has entered into repair agreements for a number of items to locally repair the items and for balance, they are in the process of entering into Long Term Repair and Maintenance Agreement (LTRMA).

In a separate reply, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said government proposes to export the Tejas to other countries. In this connection preliminary discussions have been held with a few friendly countries.

Presently, HAL has established facilities for manufacturing and delivery of 8 LCA per annum. There is a plan to ramp up the production rate from 8 to 16 Aircraft per annum progressively by 2019-20.