A day before central public sector enterprise Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) hands over two LCA FOC trainer aircraft, four Dhruv Next Generation (NG) helicopters and HTT-40 Basic Trainer aircraft on Friday, its CMD, Ravi K, spoke to Businessline about its fiscal health, manpower realignment, Tejas LCA Mk-1A fighter aircraft delivery delays, engine co-production and other strategic programmes.
Edited Excerpts
Can you tell us why the Tejas LCA Mk-1A fighter aircraft has missed several delivery schedules? As per the 2021 contract, HAL was supposed to start handing over the first batch of 83 Tejas Mk1As from March 2024.
There are a few radar issues and weapon integration is done. There has to be some tests for confirming to standards. It’s only the software change, that’s all. But, having said that, when you put a missile, you need to go, bang, go up and come down. How the missile or the structure will behave, all those tests are required. It’s a process that has to be followed. So, those tests are being done. Otherwise all other tests, including on firing, are complete.
How many GE F404-IN20 engines has HAL received from US-based GE Aerospace for LCA Mk-1A jets
I have received 10 engines and I will be able to deliver these 10 LCA Mk-1As by March. They have promised 12 additional engines by December this year.
Where do talks stand on collaboration with GE Aerospace for co-production of 99 F414-INS6 fighter jet engines in India?
All technical issues have been resolved. We are expecting commercial proposal from GE. They told us long time back that they would need three months to give proposal. By October, we should get something or they may take one or two more months since it’s a big project. We are hoping to get AoN (Acceptance of Necessity), which is a formal in principal approval) clearance from the Ministry of Defence so that we can sign the contract with the GE.
Talking about the fiscal health of HAL, you have a long-term business visibility of around ₹2.55 lakh crore. But, how do you plan to meet the challenge of converting order book into revenue?
We have put that out in our annual report. You need to see orders we have of LCA (Light Combat Aircraft Tejas), LCH (Light Combat Helicopter) and ALH (Advanced Light Helicopter). All these programmes are available which gives confidence that we should be able to deliver in the next 2-3 years. So with this itself, my revenue growth will be very good. Other than that, the ROH (Repair and Overhaul) and supply of spares will add to the numbers.
Additional orders I get or can get, like the one from the PHL is a bonus since we did not have this visibility one year back. We have been able to cover up for the LCA (delay deliveries). We are able to meet the numbers.
For the first two quarters also, we have done great.
There are also legacy issues with the HAL. How do you intend to sort out that?
What legacy issues? Legacy issues in the sense like manpower challenges and bottlenecks. And government had also set up a committee to look into functioning of HAL.
See, they’re just trying to understand how the HAL company works, whether it’s aligned, like other companies, to the businesses in the way it is supposed to be.
On manpower, we very clearly identified core non-core activities and we defined it company-wise and not one division at a time. We want to outsource it in areas they will be able to do it. So, we are hiring manpower we need to do the core activity only.
Already, we have advertised a few vacancies this year. I will do it every year because I need manpower at the end of the day. And we have tied up with so many companies for doing the outsourced jobs. I feel this issue is behind me now because I have a very clear way forward on how to resolve the manpower issue.
Can you update us on Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) programme?
I have got 12 protype LUH already. The overall requirement is 187. There are two to three issues of flight control and engine condition on landing since it’s a single engine aircraft. These two issues, we are fairly confident of resolving it by December. But helicopter per se is really, really very good. I have flown in that and the. vibrations are less. Even the cabin space is such that I can put two stretchers in that. No helicopter can accommodate two stretchers. So, I’m seeing a very good market for LUH.
The Indian Multi Role Helicopter (IMRH) project is going on and there are two things.
One is IMRH aircraft design. But, before that, we recently signed a contract with Safran for 50-50 joint design development collaboration. Safran will do certain portion of design and I will also pitch in. We will subsequently integrate, but the manufacturing will be in India.
Secondly, as you know, all platforms start with engine. So at least we know about the basic engine now. We have started the design of the helicopter engine. So a lot of PDRs (preliminary design reviews) have been computed for the system.
Can you share timeline of rolling out the IMRH?
If I’m right, I think engine is going to come somewhere in 2030 and the aircraft will be ready in 2031-32. Then the production starts. We are working towards that and I feel we will be able to do the project much faster.
And you expect this proposal to go to the cabinet committee on security?
We have requested Air Force to go to Cabinet. Maybe this year or early next year it will go to cabinet and the value would be around ₹13,500 crore or something for design and development alone.
Are you getting any other enquiries for Dhruv Next Generation (NG) civilian helicopters which you will hand over to Pawan Hans Ltd on Friday?
The most important thing in this programme is the dual certification, which has been achieved. If I make one copter, I can use it for civil, as well as to military. As far as business is concerned. First, we went to State government because we wanted to start from there. We got good response from them, but at that time we were waiting for certification. So we did not commit any helicopters to them because we wanted to clear (orders from) Pawan Hans Ltd (PHL) first. Their feedback is going to help us a lot. The PHL is going to fly for ONGC. We are now confident that because we have seen the helicopters are performing very well.
How many orders from the ONGC?
It is eight, but we keep two in standby for any breakdown. So, there are 10 for them. Parallelly we are going to now start manufacturing more because a lot of the enquiries are coming up.
And when do you deliver them to PHL?
I think December we are giving as per contract to PHL. Now four we are giving tomorrow. Pilot training for the PHL is also happening. Remaining four plus two we will deliver by December or towards March.