Since positive information on the progress of the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft ~  Tejas ~ is only occasionally circulated, there is reason for satisfaction that action has been initiated for doubling the capacity at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., Bangalore, to 16 jets a year. That would help make true the dream to produce enough aircraft in the next eight years to “retire” the 11 squadrons of MiG-21 and MiG-27 fighters that have been stretched well beyond their designed life-expectancy. The IAF is now operating with nine squadrons fewer than what is deemed necessary to tackle potential “situations” on the northern and western fronts, and with only 36 Rafales on the distant horizon the depletion of assets is becoming problematic. Doubling of the production of the Tejas could help fill a void: despite claims of other aircraft being evaluated, the prospects of them entering operational service in the near future are remote. The Tejas has had a chequered history, it will be another two years before the IAF can hope to receive the version it has configured as being close to what it requires. It does remain a moot point if a fighter conceived three decades back will “deliver”, given the improvements in missile technology, drones, etc., but our faujis have little option but to make do with whatever they get. Now that there is another change at the top in the defence ministry, whatever plans had been formulated could well be subjected to review by the next minister ~ for whom a “search” does not appear to have begun: Arun Jaitley can conduct little more than a “holding action”, as he had done in the opening months of the Modi government.

The plans to increase the capacity at HAL to 16 Tejas jets a year is more than a matter of numbers involving a second production line and modifying the facilities used for the Hawk trainer. In a mini-revolution, HAL will be outsourcing the production of the fuselage and wings of the Tejas to select private entities, and re-working itself into an “integrator”. Something long overdue, for the PSU giant has much too much on its hands to function efficiently, expeditiously and cost-effectively. The “blurring” of the public-private sector divide is welcome ~ except to those who retain obsolete ideological blinkers, and creating a stake for private ventures, and capital, in the defence production endeavour is critical to attaining the goal of self-reliance. Some leading private firms have made considerable commitments to defence production, and the key PSUs must now fully involve them in the production of hi-tech equipment. The commercial, competitive “edge” of private industry could shake some of the PSUs and Ordnance Factories out of their debilitating  sarkari lethargy.

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