IAF shelves 3 major acquisition projects for Make in India, other reasons

Amid PM Modi's government push for indigenisation, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has shelved three major acquisition projects worth over Rs 8,000 crore.

The projects shelved by the IAF include its plans to buy 38 Pilatus basic trainer aircraft from Switzerland, 20 additional Hawk planes from Britain and the plan to upgrade 80 Jaguar fighter planes with engines from America.

"We are not going forward with the additional Pilatus basic trainer aircraft that we were intending to (buy). Additional Hawks (trainer aircraft) were in the plans but at the moment, that has been shelved. There was a Jaguar re-engining plan which was totally imported and we have shelved that project," Air Force Chief RKS Bhadauria told in an interview on Monday.

"We are going to go in with the HAL support and some other engine -related upgrades that will help see through the fleet," the IAF Chief added.

He stated that these projects have been shelved for different reasons including Make in India.

The plans to acquire 38 additional Pilatus Basic Training Aircraft worth around Rs 1,000 crore from Switzerland has been scrapped as the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is in advanced stages of development of the HTT-40 trainer planes. The Air Force chief said the force would be buying 70 of these Made in India planes.

The 20 additional Hawk plane deal expected to be worth around Rs 2,000 crore has been shelved as the project was stuck for over 3-4 years now mainly over the price of the planes.

Under the Jaguar re-engining project, the plan was to equip the Jaguar fighter aircraft with new engines from Honeywell corporation from the United States but the project has now been shelved.

( With inputs from ANI )