New Delhi / Bengaluru: India’s leading defence Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) HAL is investing significantly into developing critical technologies since the key differentiator in next generation warfare is going to be in the domain of unmanned systems, aero-engines and avionics.
Talking to the media, the CMD of HAL, C B Ananthakrishnan said that HAL was also investing in futuristic concepts such as CATS (Combat Air Teaming System), which is the coming together of manned and unmanned combat aircraft, leading to air superiority.
“We are converting indigenous platforms into unmanned aircraft. For example, our trainer aircraft Kiran is being converted into UAV. HAL has also committed itself to HAPS (High Altitude Pseudo Satellite System), where we are trying to engage a private start-up in Bengaluru to see if it could be jointly developed,” CMD of the Navratna PSU said.
As part of its development, he said the company has been focussing on R&D activities since the first indigenously designed and developed aircraft Marut in 1960s. To strengthen and fund R&D activities, 10 per cent of operating profit after tax was earmarked till 2021-22. This has been increased to 15 per cent from 2022-23. Besides this, he said the company has also earmarked five per cent of profit for new start-ups and indigenisation programmes. So, all together, 20 per cent of operating Profit After Tax (PAT) is available for developing the products indigenously.
He said in 2022-23, appropriation of profit was around Rs 650 crore towards R&D and indigenisation fund. Besides, there are programmes funded separately through Board approval for major projects such as HTT 40 trainers, where there was no upfront funding from customers. The IMRH (Indian Multi Role Helicopter) programme was the recent one for which HAL went ahead with Board approval for design and developments, pending government sanction.
Elaborating on the IMRH, Ananthakrishnan said preliminary design has been completed and HAL was getting into the conceptual design part of it and are trying to structure the programme.
“We have broken it into three categories. First is airframe and avionics, the second, transmission and rotor systems, and the third engines. As far as the airframe and avionics are concerned, we are trying to involve the private industry for design and development; right from the initial stages since the time period for this programme is six to seven years. The capability exists within the country as far as avionics is concerned. For transmission and rotors, though we have capabilities, we are engaging foreign OEMs, and will jointly develop them here so that the IPR rests within the country. For engines, we have formed a JV with Safran for joint development in the country. We are progressing quite well. For the first time, we are going for this kind of approach; we are involving MSMEs and start-ups for design and development of such large projects,” he said.
“On the export front, our target is that 10 per cent of revenue ultimately should be generated from the exports. Having earlier concentrated on just Indian defence customers, HAL is now well equipped to offer a range of products for the export market because all of them are indigenously designed and developed, right from the trainers to fighters, and then the range of helicopters,” he added.
“We are in a better position to offer it to the export market, which was not the case earlier. It was more of licence production, which we were not able to export. With the thrust given by the Central government towards defence export, we are well positioned to see that these products find a place in the global market,” he said.
There are leads coming through and delegations from various countries have visited the HAL facilities and also flown the HAL aircraft and helicopters, and are quite impressed with the way products have behaved.
Several countries have evinced interest in HAL products with leads from Malaysia, Argentina, Egypt and several other nations. He was confident that many of these leads could get converted into business opportunities, especially from Argentina and Philippines. So, this could be a breakthrough order, which should come through.
The company CMD said Argentina Defence Minister during his visit was quite happy with the performance of the aircraft. As of now, some interest is being shown by Argentina towards helicopters, especially the Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH). “We are looking at somewhere around 16 to 20 numbers and once it is through then probably, we can also expect some additional bigger numbers. As far as the fighter Tejas aircraft is concerned, they have asked for the moment submission of budgetary quotation.”
On the price negotiations for GE F414 engines to power Tejas Mk2 since the signing of the MoU during the US visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, “the price negotiations with GE are yet to commence. It was as you know that sometime in 2012 the agreement was inked between ADA (Aeronautical Development Agency, which is a DRDO lab) and GE for the development program, and subsequently for production engagement with the HAL. The scope of ToT in many of these critical areas when engine production modalities were agreed to in 2012 was around 58 per cent. However, with the scope of ToT going up to 80 per cent, these technologies will now come to India for the first time. The fighter jet engine technology deal with the GE is a game-changer that will take India ahead in the coming decades.”
He said that since ToT has gone up, there is need to renegotiate. This is because once the MoU has been signed, GE also needs to take their internal clearances such as Manufacturing Licence Agreement (MLA) nod, and after that we will be sending our engine delivery schedule, requesting them to submit an offer, and based on the submitted offer negotiations will happen. Around 99 engines is what we could be looking at.
On the three accidents involving Dhruv helicopters, Ananthakrishnan said, “Dhruv is a safe and proven aircraft. ALH Dhruv has been a crucial asset to the Indian Defence Services. With over 300 Dhruv helicopter produced, the aircraft accumulating over 3,90,000 flying hours, the safety record of the aircraft is commendable. If we examine the accidents rates of helicopters in different parts of world, the Dhruv accident rate per 100,000 flying hours is far less than world average. Yes, there were some untoward incidents in recent times, the reports of such investigation are supposed to be confidential and as I understand are yet to be completed.”
On the order inflow for the PSU during April to June, 2023, he said it had got an order between Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 3,500 crore in this financial year. Of the opening order book position of Rs 83,000 crore, in the first quarter, we have liquidated Rs 3,000 crore. We have ended the first quarter with an outstanding order book position of Rs 82,000 crore. Further, Rs 3,000-crore accretion has happened in the first quarter. The major contracts have been on repair and overhaul.
