The Indian state company is in talks with at least four countries to sell its light fighter jets, a senior executive of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) said on Tuesday, as India looks to triple its defense exports within two years.
CP Ananthkrishnan, managing director of Hull, told reporters at a conference on the sidelines of Aero India, India’s largest aviation industry event, that Malaysia had included the Tejas light fighter in a short list of 10 to 20 aircraft, as well as Argentina, Botswana, and Egypt.
He stressed that the company is also in talks with the Philippines to sell light combat helicopters, adding that “there is great interest in the global aviation market, we will receive a large order sooner or later.”
India has been one of the world’s largest importers of defense equipment for decades, but it has not been a strong performer in the global arms export market.
On Monday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an ambitious goal to increase the value of his country’s annual defense exports to $5 billion over the next two years, and his government is making diplomatic efforts to export the Tejas.
In 2021, the Indian government awarded HAL a $6 billion contract to manufacture 83 indigenous Tejas aircraft for delivery starting around 2023, nearly four decades after the aircraft was first designed in 1983.
Tejas has faced design and other challenges, and the Indian Navy has previously rejected it, saying it was “too heavy”.
Ananth Krishnan said HAL plans to use the GE 414 engine in a second generation of the light fighter jet, adding that it is in talks to produce the engines in India.
