Bangalore, India, The Defence Minister, Mr. A.K. Antony inaugurated Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd’s Strategic Electronics Factory at Kasarag...
The Defence Minister, Mr. A.K. Antony inaugurated Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd’s Strategic Electronics Factory at Kasaragod (Kerala) on Saturday. Mr. Oommen Chandy, Chief Minister of Kerala inaugurated the production facilities at the same function.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Antony said the Unit had already begun production and this was only a formal inaugural function. HAL is the Defence Ministry’s flag-ship PSU which meets the needs of the Indian Air Force, be it aircraft manufacturing, modifications or electronics equipment making. In the second phase – expected to begin soon- Kasaragod facility will cater to the upgrade needs of fighter planes such as Sukhois and Jaguars, he added.
Mr. R. K. Mathur, Secretary (Defence Production) said based on its capacity and experience in the avionics, HAL was chosen by the Government to set up the Factory in Kasaragod.
Dr. R. K. Tyagi, Chairman, HAL said the new facility will eventually lead to self-sustained independent Division on getting the production and maintenance work for the avionics of medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA), Mirage-2000 upgrade programs and software defined radios. “The new factory will bring prosperity to the region and will help company take a big leap in aerospace equipment manufacturing. God’s own country is now HAL’s another home”, he added.
Presently the production of Airborne Special Purpose Computers like Mission computer, Display Processor, Radar Computers, Open Architect Mission computer etc. for SU-30, LCA, MiG-27 upgrade have been taken up at this factory.
This factory will be further expanded in phase-II to undertake the manufacture of Avionics for medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) like Automatic Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar, Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite, Communication and Navigation equipments besides other indigenous projects like Softnet Defined Radio, Interrogate Friend-Foe (IFF) Mark-XII etc.
The facilities and expertise acquired at this factory for advanced avionics of MMRCA would be used for various upcoming projects like Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA), Multirole Transport Aircraft (MTA), Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), Light Combat Helicopter (LCH), Medium Lift Helicopter (MLH), Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) etc. Thus, the workload of this factory is slated for considerable increase in coming years.
