NEW DELHI: Hindustan Aeronautics Limited chairman DK Sunil on Thursday said American firm General Electric has assured the delivery of 20 F404 engines by Dec and that HAL expects to receive a sixth GE engine for the LCA Tejas Mark 1A project by April-end.It is learnt that HAL is “imposing contractual penalties on GE” for delays in the supply of engines for the LCA Tejas jet and the penalties are being imposed on GE Aerospace as per the contract for 99 engines. In Feb 2021, the defence ministry had sealed a Rs 48,000-crore deal with HAL for the procurement of 83 Tejas Mk-1A for IAF.The ministry in Sept last year sealed another deal worth Rs 62,370 crore with HAL to procure 97 Tejas MK-1A light combat aircraft for IAF.On whether India is interested in buying Russia’s fifth-generation stealth fighter jet Su-57, the HAL chairman told the media, “I think presentations have been made regarding the Su-57 to the Air Force team by the Russian team regarding the capabilities of the aircraft. We are awaiting the Russian quotation about the investment. Then we will approach the Air Force that these are the kind of numbers required to produce these aircraft and these are the timelines.”K Sunil said the entire fleet of 34 Tejas will fly most likely from April 8 as the glitch found on board the aircraft’s software has been resolved. “All the Tejas jets are set to fly again from next Wednesday,” he said. The fleet was grounded in the first week of Feb after a Tejas jet sustained damage to its airframe after it overshot the runway at the airbase following a suspected brake failure.IAF is looking at inducting the Tejas fighter jets as the number of its fighter squadrons have gone down to 29 from officially sanctioned strength of 42.
