The Indian Air Force (IAF) aims to produce roughly 100 sophisticated fighter jets in India, for which it has commenced discussions with global aircraft manufacturers. This is a significant boost to the Make in India project. According to top government sources, the Aatmanirbhar push would see Indian currency utilized to pay for over 70% of the project’s cost for the first time. ‘ The goal is to manufacture 96 planes in India, with payments made in both Indian and foreign money for 36 of them. All payments for the remaining 60 planes will be done in Indian rupee alone,’ they stated.
The IAF intends to purchase 114 jets to strengthen its combat capability and replace its aging inventory of MiG series fighters. The first 18 aircraft in the project would be imported from the home base of a foreign vendor selected following limited testing of competing aircraft. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, MIG, Dassault, and Saab are among the companies competing for the project, which is anticipated to be finished in three years. In 2007, the Indian Air Force (IAF) issued the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contract to buy 126 new combat planes from international OEMs.
It was recommended to maintain the sanctioned strength of combat planes while the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, a projected indigenous successor for the IAF’s ageing fleet, required additional time to fill the gaps. The MMRCA project was cancelled in 2015 because of several concerns that arose during the tendering process. Instead, in order to keep the IAF functioning, the government chose to purchase 36 Rafale fighters.
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