IAF’s Make in India fighter jet project takes wings, around 100 aircraft to be built at home

In a major Aatmanirbhar push, the Indian Air Force plans to build around 100 advanced fighter jets in India, for which it has begun talks with the global aircraft manufacturers.

In a major boost to the Make in India initiative, the Indian Air Force (IAF) plans to build around 100 advanced fighter jets in India, for which it has begun talks with the global aircraft manufacturers.

Top government sources told India Today that the Aatmanirbhar push will, for the first time, see Indian currency being used to make payments for almost 70 per cent cost of the project.

“The plan is to build 96 planes in India for which payments for 36 would be made partially in Indian and partially in foreign currency. For the last 60 aircraft, the payments would be made in Indian currency only,” they said.

The IAF has plans of buying 114 planes, which would be used for augmenting its combat capabilities and replacing its outgoing fleet of MiG series planes. The first 18 aircraft in the project would be imported from the home base of a foreign vendor chosen after conducting limited trials of aircraft in competition. Companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, MIG, Dassault and Saab are in the race for the project which is expected to be completed in three years.

The IAF first floated the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) tender to procure 126 new combat jets from foreign OEMs in 2007. It was proposed to continue building upon the capabilities and keeping the sanctioned strength of combat jets as the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, a planned indigenous replacement for the IAF’s aging fleet, needed more time to be able to fill the gaps.

After many issues that came up during the tender procedure, in 2015, the MMRCA project was cancelled. For IAF to maintain its operational capabilities, the government instead decided to acquire 36 Rafale jets.