In a major boost to Aatmanirbhar Bharat, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed a contract with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for 240 AL-31FP aero engines of Su-30MKI aircraft at a cost of over Rs 26,000 crore, the defence ministry said in a statement.

The contract was inked by the senior officials of MoD and HAL in the presence of Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane and Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari in New Delhi on September 9, 2024.

These aero engines will be manufactured by the Koraput Division of HAL and are expected to fulfil the need of the Indian Air Force to sustain the operational capability of the Su-30 fleet for the defence preparedness of the country.

HAL would supply 30 aero engines per year as per the contractual delivery schedule. The supply of all 240 engines would be completed over the period of the next eight years.

During the manufacturing, HAL plans to take support from the country’s defence manufacturing ecosystem, involving MSMEs and public & private industries.

“This would also help increase the indigenous content of repair and overhaul tasks of the aero engines,” the defence ministry said.

The government is investing heavily in defence and aerospace manufacturing, with several defence hubs being set up. Indian defence PSUs have accumulated tremendously high returns on equities in the past few years, benefiting from the fresh orders.

The central government has set the target of achieving indigenous defence manufacturing worth Rs 175,000 crore including defence exports of Rs 35,000 crore by the year 2024-25. Many global companies have either shared or showed intent, to share critical defence and aerospace knowledge with India.

India’s defence exports have touched a record Rs 21,083 crore (about USD 2.63 billion) in the financial year 2023-24, with a growth of 32.5 per cent over the last fiscal, when the figure was Rs 15,920 crore. The recent figures indicate that defence exports have grown by 31 times in the last 10 years as compared to 2013-14.