HAL Revives Nashik Plant to Fulfill 12 Su-30MKI Order worth $1.3 Billion, Seeks Additional 72 Order with “Super-30” Upgrade

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is reactivating its Nashik plant to fulfill a $1.3 billion order for 12 Su-30MKI fighter jets. This move comes as the Indian Air Force (IAF) seeks to replenish its fleet and strengthen domestic aircraft production.

The Nashik facility, once a dedicated Su-30MKI production site, will now play a crucial role in delivering these essential aircraft, bolstering India's air capabilities.

Beyond this immediate order, HAL is proposing an ambitious plan to the IAF for an additional 72 Su-30MKI fighters. If approved, this would expand the IAF's Su-30MKI fleet to over 344 aircraft, adding four new squadrons by 2029-30.

This potential $5 billion deal reflects HAL's commitment to modernizing the IAF with advanced indigenous technology. However, budgetary constraints may pose a challenge to the proposal's approval.

HAL's offer for the 72 fighters includes a comprehensive "Super-30" upgrade package, designed to enhance the Su-30MKI's combat effectiveness for modern warfare. Key elements of this upgrade include:

• Indigenous AESA Radar: Integration of an Indian-developed active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar to improve detection range, accuracy, and jamming resistance.
• Upgraded Avionics and Indian Systems: Incorporating advanced avionics, mission computers, and navigation systems sourced from within India.
• Indigenous Weapons Integration: Ensuring compatibility with a wide array of Indian-made weapon systems, including missiles and precision-guided munitions.

HAL's Nashik plant has been producing the Su-30MKI under license from Russia's United Aircraft Corporation, with each aircraft costing approximately $70.3 million. The current order of 12 aircraft is expected to be completed within the next three years.

If the IAF approves the additional 72 units, HAL is confident in its ability to deliver them within six years, by 2029-30. This would significantly enhance the IAF's operational strength, bringing the total number of Su-30MKI squadrons to 34.

 

[Akshat]

Yep, this is the reason why we Indians stopped buying your Rafale after buying only 36, India is not a junkyard like your country.

Yeah, that’s the reason we are negotiating for 26 more right now 😂😂😂 Meanwhile we walked out of your junk Su57 even after investing billions into it. Tells us who has the junk.

 

[Akshat]

From where are your surplus 100 French planes coming? Only way I see that is you are talking about 20 years old second hand Rafales for India. What you wrote somewhere yesterday is not known to me maybe you could elaborate on that. The Super Sukhoi after 2028 rollout will be inducted from 2030 onwards production aircraft. We are almost at 2025 anything approved will be after next budget, suddenly the timeline doesn't seem too long. As for weapons integration there are a lot of talks but till now (as of Sep 2024) no indian weapons or subsystems have been integrated.

France has reached 2 jets per month this year, and has reached 3 jets per month at the component level. They will get there at the assembly level next years. Add those, and you will have some 370 planes between 2024 and 2034. Their backlog is only about 211, as of the start of 2024. That’s well over 150+ planes which are surplus. And 2028 and 2030 are HAL/ADA timelines. These guys also said LCA will be inducted by mid 90s and Mk2 will be in production in 2016. And even if they somehow make it happen, production starting in 2030 means first planes in 2033. France can deliver over 100 aircrafts by then, even if we assume that they don’t increase their capacity any further.

 

[PKPRS]

Yeah, that’s the reason we are negotiating for 26 more right now 😂😂😂 Meanwhile we walked out of your junk Su57 even after investing billions into it. Tells us who has the junk.

Su-57 is not mine, India invested only $295Mln,,not billions, you can’t even buy one Rafale with that money, Russia already paid back 50 times more the money in the form of oil discounts and in the form of allowing India to resell that oil to Europe, India is not negotiating any more for Rafale, talks stalled after repeated price negotiations.

 

[Anant]

Russian economy has relied on commodity export for a long time now and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. There population demographics is terrible and the loss of young men in the current war won't be helping it any.

They will continue relying on commodity export, yes. However, the discounts they have been giving for increased commodity exports to compensate for the other forms of revenue they have lost since they invaded Ukraine are not sustainable in the long run.

Eventually, after the war, these discounts on exports will have to be scaled down or discontinued, which will mean their exports will take a hit, and without those other revenue streams, that means economic growth will take a hit.

 

[AK S]

and it took 6 years for France to deliver 36 Rafale’s when they were chasing flies in their shop without any international orders, now we have to wait 15-20 years, we are not getting one extra Rafale for the Air Force anyways.

I'll not go that far. But with the backlog and global supply chain issues still around, I dont think off-the-shelf Rafale is not available right away. Last time I heard, Dassault made only 8 planes this year in 9 months against their claimed capacity of 2-3 planes per month - like 1/3 of the capacity. What it means is that even second manufacturing line in India might not be a quick fix solution as Dassault may not be able to send all the kits of the critical parts still manufactured by them.

Unfortunately, same thing goes for Russia too - In fact their supply chain may may be worse as they are busy in a war. They cant send the Su30MKI kits timely. We are indeed in a tough situation. Not investing in Kaveri engine is a cardinal mistake.

Improving the capacity of the existing planes and doubling down on MK1A (and pushing and naming and shaming GE) is the only realistic solution. Apart from the 12 Su30MKI with new Indian upgrades (costing about $1.5B), one can certainly shoot for a SU30MKI with the better engine and better RCS in the next 3-4 years.

 

[AK S]

This is the best thing that could happen, this is the best solution to fix the falling squadron strength, wish HAL fits AL-41F1 engine in these new SU-30’s 0r even the derivative of Al-51 engine, instead of AL-31FP engines in these, another 3 squadrons of SU-57 will make it past 114, we can go ahead and scrape the MRFA nonsense. Tejas MK2 is more than enough for the MWF category and MK1’s for daily sorties, if there is a prolonged delay in Tejas MK2 we should buy the cheapest of the MRFA jets and make them, either way we need 2-3 squadrons of SU-57 as a backup until AMCA becomes available.

I dont think scraping MRFA is on the cards. It's more dependent on what's happening on MK2 and GE F414 front. If there is reasonable success and there is spare capacity with Dassault, then most likely it's going to be another order of off-the-shelf Rafales - may be few squadrons. If Mk2 fails then it's going to be MRFA all the way.

So you'd hear from the French lobby that Mk2 and Rafale are not in the same weight category or for that matter even the upgraded Su30MKI is junk and again not in the same weight category. True they are not in the same weight category, but they compete with limited defence dollars at IAF's disposal.

 

[PKPRS]

Improving the capacity of the existing planes and doubling down on MK1A (and pushing and naming and shaming GE) is the only realistic solution. Apart from the 12 Su30MKI with new Indian upgrades (costing about $1.5B), one can certainly shoot for a SU30MKI with the better engine and better RCS in the next 3-4 years.

Main problem is F404/414 engines, everything depends on those, even if we get those engines we will be having supply chain issues with the items that we import from UK, France, israel and Russia for Tejas MK2, if for any reason if we are sanctioned and engines are banned, we are totally screwed up.

 

[Gaurav Sharma]

Considering the dire need for Fighter aircrafts, delay in Indigenous projects and delay in MRFA deal, what should we do?

• We should consider every available option that can fulfill our requirements to maintain depleting Squadron Strength.
• We have a very successful Missiles Development Program. Brahmos NG, Astra Mk 2, Rudran 3 will all be inducted within a 4 year time period. So what we need are platforms to deliver those highly potent missiles.
• I firmly believe that the budget is not a big issue if the Govt. is fully convinced to buy an aircraft. Increasing GST on 5 products will generate the funds for the entire purchase within a few years. After Trump's victory, crude prices are going to fall again.
• To deliver our highly potent missiles, we need aircraft, and Sukhoi is not a bad choice. We have the entire setup ready to manufacture them, and after getting them, you can spend however much time you want on upgrades, but you first have to buy them.
• From Tejas Mk1A to Mk2 & AMCA, all projects will have the capability to fire MBDA Meteor & Scalp missiles, which are best in class. Our Hypersonic Cruise missile will be a reality in 4-5 years, and the purchase of Su 30 will be worth it.
• The MRFA project should also be concluded with all possible fast-tracking.
• The Chinese missile arsenal, on the other hand, is struggling with low precision and performance issues.

 

[Benith Israel]

no need of MRFA if we make 90 SU-30’s.

MRFA will live forever under different acronyms. We need 36 Rafael's for immediate needs though which is better bought off the shelf and a fresh mrfa for a 5th gen fighter can be launched after
that.

 

[Shiva]

How foolish is this??!!!When we import trillions of dollars of components/engines from USA/France, then no one will see budgetary constraints.
But when there is something purely indigenous which will just increase money within the country from one bank account to another, then you will see a budgetary constraint!!!
What kind of nonsense is going on!!!

 

[PKPRS]

MRFA will live forever under different acronyms. We need 36 Rafael's for immediate needs though which is better bought off the shelf and a fresh mrfa for a 5th gen fighter can be launched after
that.

That is also a problem with 235 order backlog and supply chain issues, France makes only 10 aircrafts/year currently, no body knows when the backlog will clear, may be they could buy 3-4 squadrons of either EF-Typhoons or F15.

 

[tipoo2]

What would be the all in per airframe cost of the 72 more with the Super Sukhoi upgrades?

Might not be a bad idea for a relatively quicker turnaround to 4 more squadrons, we're still going to be falling in numbers for the next decade. With Virupaksha and the ASPJ GaN jammer it will be relevant for quite a while. I'm curious how much impact aftermarket radar cross section reductions can have, but it's probably limited there by the airframe design most of all.

Actually if it's significantly cheaper than MRFA and with a radar and jammer that are nearly up there with the best and new Indian missile integrations...Maybe go for even more than 72 and forget MRFA...

My only ask is, if we're spending millions on Su-30 upgrades for the existing jets, can we also spend a few thousand on a cool new paint scheme that says this is the new one and not your daddy's Su-30? 😁