The Cabinet Committee on Security on Monday (September 2, 2024) approved the proposal for the procurement of 240 aero-engines for Su-30MKI aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) under the ‘Buy (Indian)‘ category from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) at a cost of over ₹26,000 crore.
Delivery of the AL-31FP aero-engines will start after one year and be completed over a period of eight years, a Defence Ministry statement said. The engines will have indigenous content of over 54%, enhanced by the indigenisation of some key components, the Ministry said, adding they would be manufactured at HAL’s Koraput division.
The supply of these aero-engines by HAL will meet the IAF’s fleet sustenance requirement for unhindered operations of the Su-30MKI fleet, and strengthen the defence preparedness of the country, the statement said.
The IAF has a fleet of 259 Su-30MKIs, of the 272 contracted, manufactured in India under license from Russia. The long-pending upgrade of the fleet is now being executed with 84 jets to be upgraded initially by HAL over 15 years, as reported by The Hindu earlier. Air Chief Marshal V. R. Chaudhari had earlier said that the 84 jets will see the upgradation of 51 systems with an indigenous content of 78%. The Su-30s will constitute a bulk of the IAF’s fighter strength for the foreseeable future, and will remain in service beyond 2055.
As reported earlier, as the original equipment manufacturer, Russia will be involved in upgrading the fly-by-wire system, integration of systems, among others, while the majority of the upgrades, including radar and avionics, will be indigenous. The indigenous Uttam Advanced Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will be integrated on the jets as part of this.
