Industry participation will help IAF become self-reliant — Air Marshal

MUMBAI, DECEMBER 1: For the Indian Air Force to become self-reliant, it wasnecessary for it to be completely indigenised and that was pos...

MUMBAI, DECEMBER 1: For the Indian Air Force to become self-reliant, it wasnecessary for it to be completely indigenised and that was possible onlywith the active participation of the Indian industry, Air Marshal P K Ghoshsaid today. Ghosh was speaking at a seminar-cum-exhibition on indigenisationjointly organised by the Bombay Small Entrepreneurs Association and the IAFin the city.

“At present our defence needs are met by imports, incurring huge amounts ofexpenditure on foreign exchange; but if we develop a source within thecountry itself then a lot of foreign exchange in terms of dollars can besaved,” said Ghosh. For this purpose, the Air HQs has delegated thisresponsibility to HQ Maintenance Command of the Indian Air Force, headded.

The critical sourcing needs of a variety of spare parts needed by the IAF isreportedly of the order of Rs 2,000 crore, which is significant enough for alarge/medium scale company to invest and venture into with long terminvolvement. “Our fighting arm has to be kept in shape and alert at alltimes, hence there can be no compromise on quality. As such, our dependenceon external agencies for spares and maintenance requirements is a majorhindrance,” the air marshal said.

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Over the last six years, the IAF has already indigenised over one lakh itemsof different types and the current plan is for 6,400 more items.

In his address, Air Commodore T T Job said that a range of avionics andmechanical components which are required to be indigenised offer a widescope for the Indian Industries. “It is the IAF’s endeavour to expand thevendor base qualitatively as well as quantitatively,” he said.

IAF’s Group Captain A K Tiwari added that a three-level structure has beenorganised in the force to pursue the task of indigenous developement at theAir HQs, Maintenance Command and at various Base Repair Depots (BRDs).

Some of the avionics items that require indigenisation to reduce costs aresolid state memory modules, signal conditioning boards, and microwavecomponents and tubes. The front windshields for MiG-23, MiG-27 and MiG-29aircraft are currently being procured from Russia. The windshields of theseaircraft are multi-layered and utilise specialised equipment. The samples ofthese windshields have been put on display at the two-day exhibition atSmall Industries Service Institute (SISI) at Saki Naka till December 2.