TSAMTO, August 18. On August 17, the Indian state-owned company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) signed a contract worth $ 716 million with the American GE Aviation, providing for the purchase of 99 F404 aircraft engines for LCA Tejas Mk-1A light combat aircraft.
According to The Hindu, with reference to the statement of the chairman and Managing Director of HAL R.Madhavana, this is the largest order for the supply of equipment placed by the company as part of the implementation of the LCA program. The contract will be fully fulfilled by 2029, including the supply of all 99 engines and the provision of support services.
According to HAL, the company works closely with GE Aviation to support the export potential of LCA, as well as in the production of spare parts within the global supply chain of GE 404 engines.
Earlier, in February of this year, the Ministry of Defense of India signed a contract with HAL worth 480 billion rubles. rupees ($6.586 billion) for the supply of 83 LCA Mk-1A for the country's Air Force. They will join the 40 LCAs already ordered by the Air Force in two batches of 20 aircraft in the Initial and Final Operational Clearance (IOC / FOC) configurations.
According to the HAL statement, the cooperation between the companies will be expanded through the production of GE F414 engines in India for the upcoming LCA Mk-2 program. It is noted that the engines of the F404 family have accumulated more than 14 million flight hours and were used in 15 production and experimental aircraft.