HAL to Receive Major Order of 230 AL-31FP Engines for Sukhoi 30-MKI Upgrade

In a significant boost to India's indigenous defence capabilities, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is set to receive a major order for around 230 AL-31FP engines, destined to power the Indian Air Force's Sukhoi 30-MKI fighter fleet.

The deal, valued at approximately Rs 21,000 crore, will see HAL manufacture these engines domestically, replacing the ageing ones nearing the end of their operational life.

Deliveries of the engines are expected to be staggered over several years, catering to the total requirement of nearly 950 AL-31FP engines that propel the entire fleet of twin-engine Su-30MKI fighters.

HAL's production of these engines under a licensed arrangement with a high degree of localization ensures not only self-reliance but also a significant economic boost, with a large portion of the order value benefiting the local vendor and supplier base.

Beyond the engine replacements, the Su-30MKI fleet, which forms the backbone of the Indian Air Force, is also slated for a comprehensive upgrade. This upgrade encompasses the integration of new avionics, radars, and electronic warfare suites, modernizing the fighter jets to maintain their combat edge.

The first phase of this upgrade, focusing on close to 100 fighters, will be executed entirely within India, with HAL taking the lead in collaboration with the Indian Air Force and other partners. The entire upgrade program is estimated to be valued at over Rs 60,000 crore.

Currently, India operates a fleet of 272 Su-30MKI fighter jets, originally ordered from Russia. The defence ministry has also greenlit an additional order for 12 more jets, worth nearly Rs 11,000 crore, to compensate for aircraft lost in accidents, although the deal awaits formal signing.

 

[Pad UwU]

We already license producing it, we should opted for more powerful next version of it the al41f or it's newer revise version from Russia

 

[Pad UwU]

Rather only half of required should be manufactured. Rest should be replaced with indigenously developed high thrust engine to replace AL-31.

If we want that we should invest more or quickly pay Russian half of it's remaining technology to transfer knowledge... Sadly we can't pay it because we always whining about money if they demand more than $2 billion dollars... The payment would give us more knowledge and experience of how to improve Al31f engine than keep fingers crossed with Kaveri that is decades delayed 😹😹😹 wasting money

 

[Pad UwU]

Russia is not making AL-31FPs for its own Airforce anymore. It moved completely to AL-41F-1C and upgrading all of its SU-30s to SU-30SM standard with AL-41F-1Cs.

So perhaps India should pay some fee to Russia to buy full rights to remaining TOTs that Russia did not supply.
It would be a fair and win-win solution for India and enriches Russia too.

And then India can develop it further to create new variants and may be one of them will power our Tejas IA and Tejas MK2 and TEDBF too if they show promise in some of them.

Yeah that's is a good idea than wasting money hoping Kaveri would make a miracle do or die with the GTRE promising 90kn engine

 

[Pad UwU]

Does not make much sense as this engine is rather old and inefficient and harder to maintain(all Russian aero engines share this trait),the Russians have better variant in AL-41F,but procuring that powerplant for the MKI would be very costly and time consuming(IAF had abandoned this route a few years ago) and not to mention the small issue of sanctions.
So there is no point in acquiring and paying for ToT for a already obsolete engine,it's prudent to simply produce it for the MKI with higher domestic substitution for Russian components that currently going it's assembly.

Yeah because we wasted time dilly dallying and hoping miracle to happen with Kaveri... Now Al31f is not in production by Russian company instead already full production of al41f and it's other variant plus they are slowly moving to al51f that is still needs some polishing

 

[ramdas]

As there is an upgrade in the avionics and installation of more powerful AESA Radar, I hope this AL31 delivers the required amount of power and does not get compromised in other areas of performance. Going along with the same engine should not underperform during critical dogfighting scenarios and fast escape from enemy BVR confrontation.

 

[Rajesh]

Instead of wasting time and money deciding on western engine and partner it would be better we keep one more option alive. We could convince Russia to do a deal with al51 engine even if it might cost us a bit more it would be better .

 

[Ravi]

In a war scenario, many of the SU will go down. So U don't need so many engines. Fighter jets are good for parades. Look at Russia Ukraine war. The focus should be on mirv missiles and tactical nuclear warheads