Malaysian officials to visit India soon to discuss deal about procurement process of Tejas fighter jet

New Delhi, July 4: India's indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, has emerged as the top choice for Malaysia, which is looking to replace its fleet of the ageing MiG-29 combat aircraft, R Madhavan, chairman, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), has said. Newsbharati had reported earlier that India has come out as top candidate for fulfilling the requirements of LCA to Malaysia which also will include maintenance and spares for the nation’s Russian-origin Su 30 fighter jets.

 

 

“I am very confident about the deal, unless some political shift takes place. The negotiation is almost in the final stages. We are the only country which is offering Malaysia support for their Su-30 aircraft as, other than Russia, only India can support Kuala Lumpur to the extent they require for their Sukhoi fleet," Madhavan said in an interview to news agency PTI.

 

It should be noted that the Malaysian air force is looking to buy 18 new light fighter jets. In order to fulfill the needs of Malaysia, India is offering an appealing package for LCA Tejas for this deal. It has committed that it can provide Malaysia’s fleet of 18 Su 30 MKM jets flightworthy, given the vast spares reserve and technical expertise available with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

Apart from this, India has offered to set up in the southeast Asian nation, an MRO (Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul) facility, for the Russian-origin Su-30 fighters. This came after western nations have imposed sanctions against Russia in retaliation to Moscow's ongoing ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine. Due to this, Malaysia is facing difficulties in procuring spares for its Su-30 fighters. High-ranking Malaysian officials are expected to visit India soon to take forward the procurement process.

The Tejas is an indigenously developed, single-engine, fourth-generation, high-agility, multirole, supersonic light combat aircraft. The report suggest that the reason why India is the top candidate is because the other candidates - primarily South Korea and China - do not have backend contracts with Russian manufacturers to work on the Sukhoi fighters, it said.

India has priced LCA Tejas at around $42 million per unit for the package. It is to be noted that the Indian government has set an annual export target of $5 billion, or Rs 36,500 crore by 2025.

The value of defence exports by India has grown approximately by six times since 2014, with the ongoing financial year registering Rs 11,607 crore till 21 March, according to Union Minister of State in Ministry of Defence Ajay Bhatt.

Apart from that, Philippines' Defence Ministry signed a $374 million contract with the BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd (BAPL) for the supply of Shore Based Anti-Ship Missile System to the Philippines, the Ministry of Defence said. Such developments comes on the backdrop of the government's push for Make in India in defense and its stress on Aatmanirbhar Bharat - meaning self-reliant India program.