India has imposed multiple penalties on GE over the American engine manufacturer’s failure to deliver the critical F404-IN20 engines needed to power India’s indigenous fighter aircraft—Tejas MK 1A—ThePrint has learnt.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has desperately been waiting for the Tejas aircraft, which had a March 2024 delivery schedule.
Contrary to earlier knowledge that March 2024 was the delivery start date for the engines, government sources said that GE was supposed to start delivering them in March 2023.
The sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh flagged the engine delivery delay during their recent visits to the US. GE has promised to start delivering the engines by March/April 2025.
On whether GE faces a penalty clause, the sources said, “All contract obligations will be met. All clauses will be invoked.”
When checked further, government sources told ThePrint about penalties imposed on GE for the delivery delay. Without sharing the amount of the penalties because “it is an ongoing process”, the sources said the contract with GE provided for penalties as per delay in each delivery schedule.
“It (penalty) has been imposed more than once,” a source said.
According to the August 2021 contract between GE and Tejas manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the American firm was to start delivery of 99 engines for the 83 LCA MK 1A last year.
As ThePrint reported, GE’s failure to meet the timeline for delivering engines was one of the main reasons behind the delay in the delivery of the Tejas aircraft.
Meanwhile, government sources said GE’s delay in delivering the engines was not part of any US “pressure tactics”. They said GE has a tie-up with a South Korean firm, and the latter has been facing financial issues and could not deliver certain components.
“We have told GE to provide us with the transfer of technology for the same, and we will make it here,” the source said.
For the Tejas delivery delay, the sources blamed GE’s failure to deliver the engines. “The HAL as of now can deliver about 5-6 aircraft and, by next year, will have a capacity to manufacture 24. But, it all depends on the GE delivering the engines,” the sources said.
Questioned why the IAF has not received a single aircraft yet, the sources defended HAL. They said the weapons integration is recent, and a foreign company delayed the Tejas delivery. Moreover, Israel, caught up in a conflict, failed to integrate the radar in time.
The trials of the aircraft are taking place now and, after their completion, the Tejas delivery will start, the sources said.
The first aircraft of the Tejas Mk 1A series, LA 5033, took to the skies in March this year. The aircraft did not fly with a new engine but with Category B engines—reserve machines used in the past or unused reserve machines from an earlier deal with GE for the Tejas series.
HAL has set up a new production line in Nashik for the LCA Mk1As. It already had a factory in Bengaluru, capable of producing 16 aircraft/year. The public sector defence company can now build 24 aircraft/year.
