The Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Dr. D.K. Sunil, recently announced that General Electric (GE) Aerospace has readied the sixth F404-IN20 jet engine for shipment to India.
Following a period of global supply chain disruptions, GE has assured the Indian aerospace manufacturer that a batch of 20 additional engines will be delivered between June and December 2026.
This delivery is part of an initial $716 million contract signed in 2021 for 99 engines to power India's modernised fighter fleet.
These upcoming arrivals bring crucial momentum to HAL’s push to speed up the manufacturing of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mk1A for the Indian Air Force (IAF).
The F404-IN20 turbofan engines are the primary power source for this domestically built fighter.
Prompt deliveries are now essential to clear a significant backlog of completed airframes that are currently grounded solely because they lack propulsion systems.
At present, roughly 20 Mk1A airframes have been fully assembled and are waiting on the factory floor for these critical powerplants.
Dr. Sunil's recent updates suggest that the historically sluggish engine supply chain is finally beginning to move.
Over the previous financial year, HAL received far fewer engines than originally projected, which prompted the Indian manufacturer to invoke contractual penalty clauses against GE Aerospace for liquidated damages.
However, with the sixth unit now secured and more scheduled for the latter half of 2026, HAL can resume fitting the powerplants into the waiting Tejas Mk1A jets.
This will allow engineering teams to advance with necessary ground evaluations, flight trials, and pending radar software upgrades.
This progress is expected to greatly assist HAL in meeting its ambitious production goals for the Tejas platform.
Currently, five Tejas Mk1A fighters are already fitted with engines and fully prepared for handover to the IAF. Dozens more have been constructed and await their GE propulsion systems.
As the fresh batches of engines arrive, HAL will quickly prepare these waiting platforms for the Air Force, aiming to correct the delivery schedule of the ₹48,000-crore deal signed with the Ministry of Defence in February 2021 for 83 aircraft.
Both HAL and GE Aerospace are actively collaborating to resolve the logistical bottlenecks that caused previous delays.
The pledge to supply 20 engines in the second half of 2026 is part of a larger strategy to significantly increase annual delivery volumes.
Moving forward, the goal is to secure 24 engines in the 2026-27 financial year, and eventually stabilise at a rate of 30 engines annually from the 2027-28 financial year onwards.
This ramped-up supply is vital, as HAL also placed a subsequent follow-on order in 2025 for another 113 F404 engines to support an expanded order of 97 additional jets for the IAF.
