India has inaugurated a new Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) factory in the south Indian city of Kasaragod that will produce avionics for military aircraft and helicopters.
"Avionics plays a major role in functioning of modern aircraft and contributes significantly to the value of an aircraft/helicopter," says HAL chairman RK Tyagi.
"Considering the huge potential of avionics systems in the coming years, a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for a variety of avionics has been established at Kasaragod. This would result in better operational effectiveness and improved customer satisfaction."
The ground breaking of the factory occurred in August 2008. The total investment cost for the project was Indian rupees (Rs) 660 million ($12 million).
"Presently, the production of airborne special purpose computers like mission computer, display processor, radar computers, open architect mission computer, etc for the Sukhoi SU-30, HAL Tejas and Mikoyan MiG-27 upgrade have been taken up at this factory," says HAL.
In the future, the factory will expand to produce equipment for India's medium multirole combat aircraft such as active electronic scanned array radars, the electronic warfare suite and other equipment.
In future, the factory will undertake work for a number of other future types such as the fifth generation fighter aircraft, multirole transport aircraft, light utility helicopter, light combat helicopter, medium lift helicopter and unmanned air vehicles.
Source: Flight International
