Bengaluru: HAL has taken a range of new initiatives for preparing itself to take on the current challenges and take the company towards a vibrant future. The vision for HAL in coming years is to become a technology company while pursuing excellence in operations.
HAL is setting up Green Field facilities for manufacture of Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) and Naval Multi-role Helicopter (NMRH). The Government of Karnataka has allotted 610 acres land in Tumkuru District for this purpose. Actions have been initiated for obtaining required approvals/clearances.
HAL Chairman T Suvarna Raju, in his introductory remarks made at media conference at the Aero Show on Thursday, said, “ Government of India has mandated HAL and National Aeronautical Laboratory (NAL) for jointly taking up design, development and manufacture of 70-100 seater regional Civil Aircraft through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). The teams have started working and approvals are being obtained from MoD.,”
According to him, the year 2015 is going to be a very special year for HAL as we will be celebrating 75 years of our existence and we are proud that we have been contributing to the nation’s defence needs and “Make in India” concept over several decades.
He said, “ As far as skill requirements of our country is concerned, a meagre 2 % of Indian population is vocationally skilled as compared to 75% in Germany, 96% in Korea, 80% in Japan and 68% in UK. In view this stark requirement, HAL has registered a section-8 company along with Bangalore Chambers of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) & Society of Indian Aerospace Technologies and Industries (SIATI) for skill development in aerospace sector. This aerospace skill council will firm up the skill requirements (in long term) of this highly technology intensive sector”
Government has set up Design & Development Management Board (DDMB), under the chairmanship of HAL with members from DRDO Labs, Department of Defense Production and Services, for synergizing the R&D Efforts in country. Raju said, “We have released a new purchase manual, system audit manual, accounts manual, outsourcing policy, indigenization policy, R&D policy, Employee hand book, to name a few during 2014 in order to align our business processes towards better operational efficiencies.”
The Government has recently increased the limit of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Defence sector besides removing several items from the list of products, requiring industrial licence. These policy initiatives of the Government coupled with the fact that European and USA market for defence have saturated, augur well for the growth of Aerospace and Defence sector in the country. Indian Military and Civil helicopter market is a big opportunity for our company. HAL has taken steps to position itself well into this market by having products in the two to 10 ton category. The development of LUH would be very crucial to our plans as defence market capitalisation is based on timelines of this programme. We need to strive and achieve the operational clearance in line with the operational requirements of our defence services, Raju added.
Based on the current growth rate (approx. 10 to 12%), it can be predicted that the industry may have 400 to 600 helicopters by 2021. HAL is targeting this segment demand by customising ALH and by making efforts for civil certification of ALH. The fixed wing defence market will see a lot of interest by foreign OEMs as the Indian Defence and civil requirements have made it as the 5th largest market in the world.
FGFA and MTA programmes have the capability to catapult us into the league of technology leaders.
LCA, IJT and HTT-40 are the in-house technology drivers and would provide the strategic edge to our defence forces. These platforms would have significant export potential. Hawk, Dornier and Su-30 would allow us to consistently benchmark the production facilities, would allow HAL to consolidate production capacities.
Achievements:
*Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar handed over the first series production Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas made by HAL to the Indian Air Force on 17th January 2015.
* HAL has established a new production line with around 28,000 Sq m of Hangars, Engineering and Administrative blocks. Extensive investments have been done to make this state of the art production line.
*Upgrade and augmentation of production tooling has been done with Jigs already calibrated to Micron level tolerances. HAL is all set to roll out the numbers that the customer desires with this production infrastructure.
*The Su-30MKI is the teeth of IAF, and HAL has been manufacturing and delivering this agile multi role aircraft since 2005.
* HAL has successfully absorbed the technology for manufacturing this 4.5 generation fighter.
*HAL is now manufacturing aircraft from raw material stage and have already delivered 150 of them to IAF.
*On 9th Jan 2015, HAL handed over the first overhauled Su-30 MKI aircraft to the Indian Air Force from the newly established overhaul facility at HAL Nashik made with an investment of over Rs 2000 Crs.
*Su-30 has become a very lethal weapon delivery platform with the successful integration of Brahmos supersonic cruise missile. HAL has done Brahmos integration with all the analysis being done by HAL’s internal design team. HAL has provided a cost effective indigenous solution to BAPL and this aircraft is being handed over today to IAF through BAPL for carrying out live firing.
