Chairman of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), C.B Ananthakrishnan, has announced at Aero-India 2023 that the company is in talks with Egypt and Argentinian officials to secure Tejas Aircraft Deal.
HAL is attempting to sign an agreement with Egypt and Argentina’s defence ministries to will supply the Tejas Mk1A Aircraft and the scope of the agreements is reported to include a complete transfer of technology (ToT) to Egypt, as well as encouraging the manufacturing of the Tejas Aircraft within Egyptian territory. At the same time, the contract with Argentina will involve replacing its ageing fleet of Lockheed Martin’s A-4AR Fighting Hawk.
Chandan Kumar Nayak, defence analyst at Global Data says, “Over the last few years, there has been an increased focus on indigenisation, which has reoriented local defence manufacturers to explore foreign markets. At present, Indian defence equipment manufacturers are focusing on enhancing their R&D and manufacturing capabilities to support indigenous programmes.”
“If these deals are signed, then the Tejas Mk1 will be the first combat aircraft to be exported from India to another nation”. GlobalData estimates the deals will generate revenue of $1.5 to 2 billion for HAL.
The HAL Tejas is an Indian, single engine, delta wing, light multirole fighter designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) in collaboration with Aircraft Research and Design Centre (ARDC) of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy. It is designed with “relaxed static stability” for enhanced manoeuvrability and agility. Its flexibility permits it to carry out Interception, air-to-surface and anti-shipping roles in a single mission. The wind tunnel testing and computational fluid dynamics analysis have optimised the design of Tejas for minimum transonic and supersonic wave drag, as well low wing-loading. – Wikipedia
Its navigation suite includes a Sagem SIGMA 95N ring laser gyroscope inertial navigation system with an integrated positioning system. The Tejas also has a 23mm twin-barrelled GSh-23 gun and Derby BVR missiles.
The Tejas aircraft deal would make a mark in the foreign defence market. Although it is early to say if India’s increase in research and development spending is making a difference, it is undoubtedly a positive sign that they are exporting aircraft to unfamiliar business partners.
India is one of the significant contributors of defence imports to Asian countries such as Myanmar and Sri Lanka but is not commonly known to export to Egypt and Argentina.
Chandan Kumar Nayak said, “GlobalData expects that the contracts will strengthen the domestic aerospace and defence industry in India besides helping the country achieve its vision of developing more advanced aircraft with indigenised components.”
The deal would make Egypt and Argentina the first nations to procure the Tejas Mk1. The fighter jet is already being used domestically, primarily by the Indian Air Force.
The talks of an agreement come a few weeks after Army Technology reported that Egypt is attempting to modernise its aircraft inventory to drive defence expenditure.