India
has already set aside a $4.16 billion budget for the
production of the Sukhoi military aircraft
IslamOnline
News Desk
CAIRO, Jan. 29
(IslamOnline
& News Agencies) - India will start producing Sukhoi fighter
jets under license from Russia by 2004, according to a top Indian
government official, news agencies reported yesterday.
The Indian government has earmarked $4.16 billion for the project,
according to Nalini Ranjan Mohanty, chairman of the state-owned
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). "We will produce 12 Sukhoi
MK-I fighter aircraft every year between 2004-17," Mohanty
said.
Bangalore-based
HAL has been manufacturing Russian MiGs and working on a light
combat aircraft (LCA) project that would use an American engine.
Some vital components of the two-seater supersonic Sukhoi fighter
aircraft would be produced at HAL's engineering division at Sunabeda
in the eastern state of Orissa. The engineering division was being
upgraded for the purpose. "The Sunabeda plant would be expanded
at a cost of $500 million," Mohanty said.
An agreement between Moscow and New Delhi allows the transfer of
Russian technology to produce 140 Sukhoi fighter jets under license.
The two countries will set up production, repair and overhaul
facilities for the Sukhoi aircraft, which are already used by the
Indian Air Force.
Russia is also expected to pool resources with India to build a
new-generation fighter jet, which is to make its first flight by
early 2006 and enter production by 2010. The new jet will help
secure a competitive edge over prospective US and European designs.
Mohanty, said that the Indian Air Force would gradually phase out
accident-prone MiG fighter aircraft. Nearly 100 of the Indian Air
Force's Soviet-made MiGs have crashed in the past five years,
killing 50 pilots.
Mohanty, who was a member of the government committee that probed
the MiG crashes, said that the government investigations found that
80 per cent of the crashes were caused by human errors and the rest
by bird hits.
