'F-16 under active consideration'

Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi today indicated that India might go for F-16 advanced fighter aircraft.

Tyagi said F-16 was one of the many categories of multi-role aircraft the government was considering for procurement. "F16 is very much under consideration," Tyagi told media after inaugurating the 54th International Congress of Aviation and Space Medicine here.

The F-16s are built by Lockheed Martin. Earlier, Lockheed had offered to build "exclusive" F-16 fighters for the IAF.

India has announced its plan to buy 126 multi-role fighter aircraft over the next 15 years. Tyagi said India would float request-for-proposals (RFPs) for buying the jets shortly. "RFP is issued by the Ministry of Defence but I know that it will be out very shortly," he added.

Tyagi said any purchase by the IAF would follow the normal "complex" procedure.

"We send RFPs to various companies. We evaluate their products. This is followed by a technological evaluation, which takes care of the transfer of technology," Tyagi said.

He said the government would have a detailed discussion with the manufacturers before deciding which aircraft to buy.

Tyagi said the government was also considering the cost and complexities of technology associated with the products. "We will go to the world market and see which is the most suitable product in terms of price and technology and how quickly we can absorb the technology," he added.

Tyagi said that the induction of indigenously developed light combat aircraft (LCA) by the IAF was on schedule. "We have placed an order for 20 LCAs and the production is on schedule. We are carrying out integration of weapons, which will take some time," he said.

He said the LCA would be first inducted in the initial operational capacity stage. The final operation would follow latter.

IAF has signed a contract with Bangalore-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for development of a light combat helicopter (LCH).

"This is at a design stage now. It's a concept which is being designed at the moment. This will also be weaponised for the specific use of the IAF," he added.