India To Spend $187 Million To Double LCA Production

The Indian Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) is working on a proposal to double the production of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) from the current eight to 16 per annum by Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL).

An expenditure of INR 1259 Crore (US $187 million) has been proposed for this purpose with 50 percent funding by HAL, 25 percent by IAF and 25 percent by Indian Navy, with timeline of 36 months from the date of sanction, Minister of State for Defense Rao Inderjit Singh said in a reply to the Parliament Tuesday.

A case for additional 80 LCA with four essential capabilities namely Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles, Air to Air Refueling (AAR) capability and Electronic Warfare (EW) suite in the upgraded version LCA Mk 1A is being progressed for placing orders, the statement said.

Full scale production of India’s indigenous Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas is expected to begin next year.