New Delhi: Defence Public Sector Undertaking, HAL is exploring the possibility of setting up a Joint Venture to manufacture indigenously ejection seats in military aircraft.
Certain advancements have collectively propelled an industry towards the future. Such is the stature of the ejection seat in aerospace. The innovation of ejection seats continues, yet the global market remains dominated by the British manufacturer Martin Baker. While Russia has developed an alternative, and there are other American manufacturers, Martin Baker continues to capture more than 75 percent of the market. Now, India seeks to develop an indigenous capability for building ejection seats.
With the lion’s share of the global aircraft ejection seat market, Martin Baker has been fitted into aircraft from many countries. This has empowered the British government, through Martin Baker, to influence the sale and purchase of aircraft. Notably, the UK exercises control over its industries when enforcing the arms embargo against Argentina. With none of the formidable fighter aircraft sans Martin Baker, anyone other than China cannot take on Argentina as a client. To do so, they must replace each component of British origin.
A recent snag in a Martin-Baker ejection seat grounded hundreds of aircraft worldwide. This was only a minute percentage affected by a limited number of production lots of a subsystem.
“HAL is exploring the possibility of setting up a Joint Venture for manufacture of seats in India,” a source confirmed on the sidelines of the recently concluded DefExpo 2022.
This indigenisation bid has three impacts. First, it will allow India to free itself from the influence of the UK and sell to countries like Argentina. Second, it will allow other manufacturers an alternative. According to information available in the public domain Martin Baker sells an ejection seat anywhere from $140,000-400,000. Such capability will boost defence exports. Finally, it will reduce the cost of indigenous offerings like the LCA Tejas and make them more competitively priced.
