The aircraft will be made in collaboration with foreign manufacturers under Make in India
Taking the first step towards procuring 110 fighter jets to make up for the dipping numbers of squadrons the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has sought details from manufacturers that will be interested in taking up the project.
A Request for Information (RFI) was issued on Friday for the procurement stating that majority of these will be indigenously made in collaboration with foreign manufacturers under the strategic partnership model and the 'Make in India' policy.
The proposal is to procure 110 fighter jets and over 90 will be manufactured in India, according to the RFI issued. "The procurement should have a maximum of 15 percent in flyway state and the remaining 85 percent aircraft will have to be made in India by a strategic partner," the RFI stated.
The jets should fall under the category of multi-role combat aircraft capable of carrying out roles like air superiority, air defence, air to surface operations, reconnaissance, maritime operations and air refuelling.
The IAF that is operating with only 33 fighter squadrons against the sanctioned strength of 42 will be further reduced to only 16 by 2032 and 19 by 2027.
The earlier proposal was restricted to only single-engine fighters that restricted the contest to only two manufacturers but with the fresh RFI companies can bid for both single or twin-engine jets.
As of now, the Air Force requires at least 45 squadrons but it is well short of the target. Each squadron has 18-20 fighter jets many of the squadrons are not full strength.
De-induction of MiGs 21, 27 and 29 over the next 10 years will cause this critical fall in the number of fighter fleet of the Indian Air Force.
The Air Force is banking on Rafale, Sukhoi 30s and indigenous Tejas and now with the process for 110 new fighters starting hoping to fill the critical gap at the earliest.
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