SHAH ALAM: Made in India, LCA? Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) chairman R. Madhavan said the company was looking to export its Tejas LCA to Southeast Asia and Middle East countries soon. The export drive was boosted with the contract for 83 Tejas signed between HAL and the Indian Air Force on Feb 3.
The $6.5 billion deal is for 83 Tejas – 73 MK1A single seaters and 10 MK1 dual-seat trainers. Although the reports were ambiguous about its potential Southeast Asia customer it must be noted that only Malaysia had sought the RFI for the Tejas in the region.
HAL Tejas LCA. HAL
It is interesting to note that the HAL chairman told the media that the cost for a Tejas LCA was $42 million and $38 million for the trainer for the export market. For comparison, the Philippines in 2014 bought 12 Korean Aerospace FA-50PH light attack jets for $421 million or around $35 million per aircraft.
One of the two Tejas landing at the Langkawi airport in 2019. Alert 5 photo.
Indian newspaper the Print reported that the Tejas faced challenges in the export market
The main challenger for the Tejas Mark 1A, in terms of exports, is the joint Sino-Pak product, JF-17.
Defence officials, however, argued that the Tejas has superior performance since it has a better engine, radar system and electronic warfare suit, besides an edge in weaponry like the Beyond Visual Range missiles.
Refusing to name countries that have shown interest, Madhavan said they are from Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Sources in the defence establishment, however, said half a dozen countries, including Sri Lanka and Egypt, have evinced interest in the aircraft.
HAL is looking at setting up logistics facilities in Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka to woo the countries to buy Tejas and military helicopters.
This is because having logistics facilities is key to selling the products and ensuring after-sales services.
Tejas as most of you were aware was exhibited at the LIMA 2019 and it is likely that the aircraft would be again be featured at LIMA 21 if the event would have taken place this March.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (41)
Aah, HAL Tejas. The question that popped up immediately in my tiny Malaysian brain is this...when is the IAF going to get 'this' 83 Tejas? 2025, 2030 or 2050, when everyone here and elsewhere is dead and no one remembers there is this one plane (Tejas) that's supposed to be flying initially in Indian markings? 🤔 I rest my case. Back to bed then...✌️
No Tejas, please. I dunno what the deal was with the Indians but instead of Tejas they could've get the licence to locally produce Mirages instead and it would be far more capable.
Rather get more Hawks than Tejas
Oops, Tejas radars are Israeli..... Might have some issues there..
Reply
As does the FA-50...
ASM - “they could’ve get the licence to locally produce Mirages instead and it would be far more capable.”
It was/is a national interest thing; to develop the local industry and make them less reliant of foreign technology partners. The hope is that Tejas will be the catalyst for a platform in the next decades that will have a higher local content. Seen from this perspective license producing Mirages wouldn’t have cut it. The intention was also to develop a MRCA.
ASM - “Rather get more Hawks than Tejas”
Depends on what you want to do. I’m not into platform comparisons but Tejas (seen from its paper specs) is way ahead of Hawk in certain areas; especially in the air to air and ground attack role (unlike Hawk both these roles were planned for Tejas from Day One). Plus: it’s a newer platform with far more growth potential - Hawk has reached the end of its potential.
I personally doubt Tejas has a chance but ultimately it depends on politics. What will the Indians offer in terms of industrial offsets? Will HAL have the full support/backing of the Indian government? Can HAL guarantee us uninterrupted and timely supply of spares? Will palm oil be accepted as part payment? Will we see a Tejas deal as a means of strengthening diplomatic/trade ties with India?
The politics aside; growth potential, cost of spares, operating costs throughout its service period and what it has already been integrated/certified with; will be questions the RMAF will be seeking answers for when looking at all the contenders.
"As does the FA-50…'"
Therefore most realistic choice is M346 Master as I predicted. Yuk yuk yuk...
No please ditch this Tejas if possible and with that 40M pricetag..A big no no..I'll take mitten/jf17 instead of that Tejas
The name Tejas sounds good in chemistry to us Malaysian. Hopefully, it goes the same with the machine. To add, in naming weaponry, just like the AV4 Lipan Bara, the next AV6 could be Kala Jengking and so forth.
@Firdaus
Mittens and JF17s are also not ON in my book. Mitten is the clone of the M346FA (why buy Russian again?) whilst JF17 is probably a decent LCA until one considers that it's fitted with the same 'smoky' engine that powered our MiG 29s. Albeit improved ...
If we take their INSAS rifle and Arjun tank as benchmark of their local defence industry.... err, better to look elsewhere.
@joe
"Therefore most realistic choice is M346 Master as I predicted. Yuk yuk yuk…"
And nobody dont want to argue that we have bought the Israeli made TALD and JHMCS. We also cannot rule out that KAI is willing to integrate any radar if the consumer required it.
As for Tejas, on paper the MK1A sounds good and on platform per platform basis offered more feature that FA-50 but it had never been exported out yet let a lone being produced. Probabaly the Mk1 being offered by HAL to us. Like Azlan mentioned, politics, national interests and offsets are also on the table.