India signed a 623.70 billion rupee ($7 billion; €6 billion) contract with national aircraft manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) on Thursday to modernize its armed forces.
The deal involves the acquisition of 97 Tejas Mk-1A fighter jets that would be made in India.
“This contract reflects the trust and confidence of the government and the armed forces in the indigenously developed aircraft Tejas, which will be the mainstay of the [Indian Air Force] in the years to come,” wrote India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on the social media platform X.
India to retire Soviet-era MiG fighter jets
The order was announced a day before the Indian Air Force fly 36 of their MiG-21 aircraft for the last time after decades of use, which will officially reduce their mostly Soviet-era fleet to 29 jets.
Some Indian officials do not welcome the MiG reduction after recent conflict with Pakistan in May.
Indian aerospace expert Angad Singh told the AFP news agency that India had “originally planned” to retire the Russian fleet in the 1990s and had later “no choice” but to upgrade them to “squeeze more life out of it.”
Modi aims to beef up domestic defense industry
Thursday’s deal with HAL also comes after India had already signed a contract in 2021 for of 83 Tejas Mk-1A planes, the same fighter jet model ordered this week.
However, the 2021 batch is yet to be delivered and HAL blames the engine manufacturer General Electric (GE), which pleaded that the COVID-19 pandemic made it a big challenge to restart the production line and caused delays in the global supply chains for the engines.
The purchase of more Indian-made aircraft is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government’s ‘Make in India’ agenda, through which India is supposed “to become a global leader in manufacturing and innovation,” the Indian defense minister posted on X.
Meanwhile, in April, the Indian government also closed a multi-billion-dollar deal to buy 26 Rafale fighter jets from France’s Dassault Aviation. The new jets would join India’s existing fleet of 36 Rafales.
Edited by: Zac Crellin