Thread by @Indrani1_Roy

Many have expressed some surprise and confusion on the 6,500 crores allotted for building Tejas, testing and certifying Mk2 prototypes.

Some find it high! Actually, it is very cheap.

We paid over twice that amount (~13,500 crores) for "India Specific Enhancements" on the Rafale 5 years back. These enhancements were only related to avionics and new weapons.

By the way, most of these enhancements were in the planned iterative development path Rafale any how. But somebody needed to fund that development and testing.

India did. And unfortunately, that cost was only amortized on 36 aircrafts!

It was a win-win for Dassault though. It can pitch these enhancements to all other current and future customers.

And by the way, Dassault did nothing wrong. This is how development in military aviation goes.

So, 6,500 crores for setting up rigs and build, test-fly and certify new aircrafts should only pleasantly surprise you.

And hopefully these 6,500 crore is amortized over far more than 100 aircrafts. I hope for 200+ Mk2s for India and another 100+ in exports.

But this is way beyond Tejas Mk2. This is investment in the aviation industry in the country.

India has only managed to deliver half a squadron a year to IAF. If IAF has to arrest and reverse the decline of its squadron numbers, this number must be at least quadrupled.

If we want to also export. We must find a way to reach a cumulative production rate of >60 aircrafts per year between Tejas Mk1A/trainers/Mk2/HLFT, AMCA & TEDBF.

But developing mature assembly lines with established suppliers from all tiers takes 5-10 years.

We have only scratched the surface of building such an industrial-complex with the Tejas Mk1 IOC/FOC. Tejas Mk1A and Mk2 can really help mature this industry which can take on the complexity of AMCA/TEDBF.

Also, there is no substitute of learning in the field. LRUs that are adopted from Mk1 to Mk1A are more mature just because of the refinements that have gone in based on operational experience. The same will go for LRUs that are adapted from Mk2 to AMCA/TEDBF.

Finally, and MOST importantly: This 6,500 crores will let India retain and hone the skills and capacity of the people in this industry. ALL major aerospace players know the importance of this and implement it to the tee.

India has not and paid a HUGE price. Time to reverse that

In summary, the ROI of 6,500 crores is SIGNIFICANTLY larger than just the certification of Tejas Mk2. The babus have done their part (albeit belatedly).

It is time now over to HAL and ADA to deliver the goods and on time.