JOIN USSpeaking on the sidelines of an event, he said: “These will be for the production of medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) , light utility helicopter (LUH), fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) and multi-role transport aircraft (MTA).”
He said the government is set to buy 18 aircraft under the MMRCA programme from a foreign manufacturer, with the remaining 108 to be produced by HAL under licence.
HAL is also scouting for a location for manufacture of light utility helicopter (LUH), and once it’s identified, government approval would be sought. Separate plants have also been proposed for the FGFA and MTA he said, adding, as per initial plans, MTA would be manufactured in Kanpur and FGFA in Nasik.
A Russian team is already in Bangalore to train HAL personnel as the preliminary design of FGFA has begun. FGFA is a $6 billion project, to be equally shared by India and Russia. A contract for preliminary design of the FGFA was signed between HAL, Rosoboronexport and Sukhoi. The Indo-Russian FGFA programme involves production of 200-250 aircraft.