A senior Indian Air Force (IAF) Officer on Thursday visited various aerospace manufacturing and R&D facilities in Bengaluru to get an overview of the ongoing indigenous programmes and production capabilities.

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) of the Southern Air Command, Air Marshal Jasvir Singh Mann, visited the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

According to the Southern Air Command, Air Marshal Mann interacted with Amitabh Saraf, PGD (Combat Aircraft) & Director, other senior leadership and reviewed presentations on design and development programmes, including LCA AF Mk-II and fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA). He also visited the VR Lab.

The ADA will execute the AMCA programme through industry partnership, and three entities, Larsen and Toubro-Bharat Electronics Limited combine, Tata Advanced Systems, and the Bharat Forge-BEML consortium, have been shortlisted for the stealth fighter programme which is expected to be inducted into the IAF in the next decade.

At the HAL, the AOC-in-C interacted with Ravi K., Chairman and Managing Director of the PSU and other senior officers.

He also visited the LCA Aircraft Division and production facilities and during his meeting with the HAL officials, he emphasised the importance of timely delivery of LCA Tejas Mk1A aircraft to meet the operational requirements of the IAF.

There has been a delay in the delivery of the LCA Mk-1A variant to the IAF which has been blamed due to delay in the delivery schedule of GE engines for the indigenous fighter jet.

In February 2021, the Defence Ministry signed a ₹48,000 crore deal with the HAL for the procurement of 83 Tejas Mk-1A jets for the IAF.

As per the contract, the HAL will manufacture 73 LCA Tejas Mk-1A fighter aircraft and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 Trainer aircraft. The delivery of all 83 aircraft was to be completed in eight years from the date of signing the contract.

The HAL was to deliver the first three aircraft in the third year, and 16 aircraft per year for subsequent five years.