This is also probably the lowest order placed by a host Air Force for an indigenous aircraft.
Rate of production is directly proportional to order size. Public or private. Why build additional production capacity if line will become dry in 4 years?
If IAF needs 200-300 MWF, then it has to show the money. Maybe get an AoN from DAC so that HAL can confidently invest in additional production capacities for Mk1A and use it to MWF later. But for that MWF will have to be ready by 2026-27(IOC I mean). Will ADA deliver? 🤷🏼♂️
Also since HAL sources a whole lot of pvt suppliers for sub assemblies, only such commitments will push the pvt tier-1 suppliers to invest in additional capacities for the higher rate that is apparently needed. Else why would Dynamatics or L&T invest in additional capacities?
This is also the reason I’ve advocated for the design agency and the production agency to come under one roof. So that there is better synergy and accountability between the production arm and design arm.
There needs atleast a single project director from IAF/govt to whom ADA MWF director and HAL LCA production head report to directly rather than to their respective organisational heads alone.
The primary reason for lower production rate is here. GoI negotiated for lower per aircraft cost, which is only possible if fixed costs are lowered, which means lesser production capacity across HAL and its 100s of suppliers. You get what you pay for. timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/83-lcas-…
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The way Afghanistan has turned out to fall to ragtag militia within days after more than a decade of national building project. India post 1947 would’ve had its task cut out in terms of forming a stable political union and not get balkanised by sub national forces completely.
Starting right from landing forces in Srinagar to bringing the 500 odd princely states we faced an uphill battle to form a nation and thanks to the leaders and the bureaucrats then who had a razor sharp focus on that in the initial decades.
Yes we floundered in multiple cases, including Nagaland, Mizoram, Kashmir etc but there are so many ways this project could’ve gone wrong and yet here we are. A young stable political union of 74 yrs with a $2.7 Trillion economy. The work isn’t over with Maoists & Naxalites
Aatmanirbhar Screwdrivergiri!
75 yrs and we still import what is mundane tech worldwide!
“The South Korean firm will share the designs and once MCF approves they will be made in South Korea and brought in India in knocked down condition" timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india…
1955, ICF Perambur was started to produce coaches for IR with imported design from Swiss Schlieren and we have been producing that for 65 years now.
All that ICF was doing was produce variations of the same design for different purposes. No new overall design or generative D&D.
1990s for lack of design and development expertise, we again issue global tender for a new lightweight design. LHB coaches come in. And RCF Kapurthala and ICF Perambur have been making LHB for years now.
“We plan to carry of out the 1st flight of the aircraft by March 2022 and get the certification from CEMILAC by mid-2023 before kicking off production. The 1st Mk-1A aircraft will be delivered to the air force by March 2024, with the rest slated to join its combat fleet by 2029.”
“HAL is holding discussions with its entire vendor base for reducing cost as the volumes are higher. The target is a price reduction of 15% to 20%,” Madhavan said. HAL has set a deadline of November 2021 to place purchase orders for raw materials.
Piyush Goyal wants Indian Inc to be nationalistic like East Asian companies to their nations.
Has any Indian govt in its 74 yr history ever done anything remotely like what East Asian govts have done to their national companies? Zilch Nada Nil! thehindu.com/business/Indus…
If this is the barometer of being nationalistic then the govt itself isn’t. It has been awarding tenders to Chinese firms over Indian firms for the sake of L1. Then WTF shouldn’t corporate India do what’s best for itself? business-standard.com/article/econom…
And here’s the latest. The government has allowed domestic companies to partner with Chinese firms by way of technology transfer agreements to bid for PUBLIC PROJECTS. financialexpress.com/industry/chine…
9 years back China didn’t have a single aircraft carrier, now it’s building 3rd. IAC-1 has been under construction on CSL docks for more than 9 years.
China’s 3rd aircraft carrier is in advanced stages of development while India’s shipbuilding stammers! swarajyamag.com/defence/how-ch…
Trying to address the reasons for the perennial delays in Indian defence shipbuilding at Defence shipyards. Ofcourse the usual PSU work culture, unions, and very malignant issue related to a DPSU comes in. But there's more to why our shipyards specifically are too slow!
In any large product mfg, especially those that are complex & few in numbers(unlike tanks/artillery guns), production planning is very critical to get the fastest build out time. Some critical subassemblies might take twice the time to build compared to the superstructure itself.
The history of LTTE, Eelam Tamil struggles are far too complex. Tamils who are Indian nationalists have come to accept this mixed history as multiple shades of grey. It'll never be a binary for us unlike either tamil nationalists or the rest of India.
There is absolutely no point either for the larger Indian nationalists who don't understand Eelam history or for the looney tamil nationalists to try to push us take a firm balck and white stand on them as either freedom fighters or as terrorists. It will always be complex for us
Assassinating our PM meant that they need to be eliminated. That's just the writ of the Indian state imposing itself and there can be no compromise. But that doesn't take away the legitimate struggle of the Tamils of the Northern province.