Mehar Singh/DELHI
About 40% of the Indian air force's aircraft will become obsolete in the next two years, according to a report released by the Indian Government's standing committee on defence.
The report, tabled in the Indian Parliament in late December, has condemned what it calls "inexcusable" government lapses in procurement policy.
The committee also says the long-delayed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and air defence missile programmes were already facing the threat of technological obsolescence. In particular, it has asked the government to conduct a performance audit of the fighter project.
According to the committee, almost Rs30 billion ($640 million) has already been invested in the LCA and the Indian air force will receive the aircraft at least 32 years after the project began. Some observers doubt the aircraft will ever be bought in meaningful numbers, if at all.
According to the Indian air force, the fully developed operational aircraft will not be available before 2012, or more realistically, not before 2015, and it says there will also be "considerable delay" in the country's planned service entry of the Akash and Trishul missiles.
The repeatedly delayed maiden test flight of the LCA, which had been scheduled for 24 December, has been delayed yet again. The defence ministry has given no new date for the test flight, saying only that it would take place "very shortly". The aircraft was rolled out in the mid-1990s.
Defence minister George Fernandes blames the delays on the international sanctions that were imposed on India in May 1998 after New Delhi conducted a series of nuclear tests.
Source: Flight International