Flying into the future

But HAL can’t afford to be complacent with the private sector entering the defence sector. Swedish combat aircraft manufacturer SAAB has a tie-up with Adani Group to manufacture Gripen E fighter jets in India and U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin has a joint venture with Tata Advanced Systems to produce F-16s in India. Both deals are contingent on which fighter jet is procured by the air force.

Competing with big private players won’t be easy. Kak is optimistic about HAL’s future but says it needs a lot of reforms like a change in management structure as well as strict delivery schedules and quality standards. Does HAL have the chops to compete with global giants? Its history suggests it does. India’s journey to build its own aircraft began in 1940 when industrialist Walchand Hirachand formed Hindustan Aircraft Company. The company was taken over by the government within five years and ultimately became Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). Not many countries have developed a supersonic fighter jet from scratch. India did it back in the 1960s when German aeronautical engineer Kurt Tank helped HAL develop the HF-24 Marut. Inducted into the air force in 1967, the Marut had its moment of glory when it helped India win the 1971 war against Pakistan.

After the Marut was retired in 1985, India did not have a locally-developed fighter jet for years—until the Tejas. Although it was conceptualised in 1984, it remained on the drawing board for years as the political establishment doubted HAL’s capabilities. By the time the aircraft’s first technology demonstrator, or TD-1, took to the skies in 2001, India had already been blacklisted by the U.S. for its 1998 nuclear tests. HAL then had to develop modern avionics from scratch. “The fly-by-wire mechanism (a partially computer regulated system for flight controls) took 20 years for Indian scientists to decode and establish,” says Raju, who was director of design and development before taking over as CMD.

OF course, HAL had a lot more on its plate over these years. It maintains, repairs, and overhauls not just locally-made aircraft and helicopters, but also those procured by the air force from third parties like the Mirage 2000. It has 11 research and development centres, spends 7% of its revenues on R&D—more than most PSUs— and owns one trademark, seven patents, and 44 copyrights. A lesser known role is that of technical evaluator of all military aircraft procured by the air force. “There is no better technical evaluator of military aircraft than HAL because it is the only institution in the country which has built an aircraft from scratch,” says a defence analyst, who declined to be identified.

For all its roles , its biggest achievement—however long it might have been in the making— is still the Tejas. Defence experts believe its technology can be used as a building block for the advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA). Karnad says the best way is for the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA)—tasked with the design and development of light combat aircraft in HAL—to transfer the blueprints and technologies of the new variant of the LCA and the next generation of AMCA to private sector companies like Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Defence, not just to grow the competition for HAL, but because there is enough business to go around.

from Indian Defence Research Wing http://ift.tt/2GMfH9c
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