Union Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane on Friday inaugurated the third LCA production line and also handed over the 100th Sukhoi Su-30MKI Repair and Overhaul (ROH) aircraft to Air Vice Marshal Sarin at HAL’s Nashik Division

Nashik/Bangalore: Union Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane on Friday inaugurated the third LCA production line and also handed over the 100th Sukhoi Su-30MKI ROH aircraft to Air Vice Marshal Sarin at HAL’s Nashik Division.

The Signal Out Certificate (SOC) of the 100th ROH aircraft was handed over by Saket Chaturvedi, CEO (MiG Complex), HAL, to Air Vice Marshal Sarin in the presence of HAL CMD C.B. Ananthakrishnan and other senior officials.

The Defence Secretary lauded HAL’s efforts in taking up the challenge of setting up an ROH facility for Su-30 MKI and also for establishing a new production line for LCA manufacturing.

Stating that HAL has been fulfilling the needs of the country’s security, Aramane said, “The government has come out with several ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ policies, and that puts HAL in a very important position. HAL will be producing more in the coming years. Build more systems, come out with new concepts, new platforms for future growth.”

He also urged HAL to take up new initiatives to aggressively compete in the defence market and look into new areas like unmanned vehicles as the country is in need of these advanced systems. He emphasised on initiatives, innovation, excellence and focus on performance.

Aramane also visited the TEJAS Assembly Complex, Su-30 ROH Flight Hangar and Final Assembly Hangar.

C.B. Ananthakrishnan, CMD, HAL, said, “The new production line will enable the company to enhance TEJAS MK-1A production capacity from 16 to 24 aircraft per year. HAL’s Nashik Division has achieved peak overhaul capacity of 20 Su-30 aircraft per year despite having supply chain issues in the current geopolitical situations.”

HAL has already set up two TEJAS manufacturing facilities in Bangalore.

HAL’s Nashik Division set up the Sukhoi Su-30MKI Repair and Overhaul (ROH) facility in 2014 to meet the operational requirements of the IAF.

Having gained experience from manufacturing MiG-series and Sukhoi Su-30MKI aircraft and subsequent overhaul of MiG-series aircraft, HAL successfully mastered the technology with valuable support from the IAF, regulatory bodies and private industries.

Several HAL sister divisions are involved in the ROH activities. The company plans to reduce the dependency on OEM by indigenising majority of components required for ROH within the next 3-5 years.