The Ministry of Defence plans to penalise HAL for failing to deliver any Tejas Mk1A fighter jets to the Indian Air Force despite a 2021 contract worth ₹45,696 crore. Delays in GE engine supplies have stalled deliveries beyond the original deadline.
New Delhi: The Ministry of Defence is moving to impose financial penalties on state-owned plane maker Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) after it failed to deliver a single LCA Tejas Mk1A fighter jet to the Indian Air Force. The delay has now stretched well over two years past the original deadline.
The ministry had signed an agreement with HAL in 2021 to supply 83 LCA Tejas Mk1A aircraft, comprising 73 fighters and 10 trainers, to the IAF at a cost of ₹45,696 crore. The deliveries had to begin from February 2024. That deadline has long passed, and not a single operational aircraft has been handed over to the Air Force.
The contract had envisaged HAL delivering approximately 8 aircraft per year to the IAF.
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The Bengaluru-based company is yet to supply a single aircraft to the IAF, primarily due to a delay of more than a year by US aviation major General Electric in supplying the critical F404-IN20 engines.
In the past, the HAL has defended itself by pointing to the engine supply failure. Out of the 99 engines ordered under a $716 million contract signed in 2021, GE has managed to deliver only six units as of April 2026.
The supply was originally to begin from April 2023, which did not happen, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had to take up the issue with his US counterparts multiple times.
HAL had confirmed that five LCA Mk1A aircraft are fully ready for delivery incorporating major contracted capabilities, while an additional nine aircraft were built and flown earlier with test engines pending replacement by the GE F404-IN20 powerplants. Despite this, no aircraft has been formally handed over to the IAF.
Around 20 Mk1A airframes have been fully assembled and are currently waiting on the factory floor solely because they lack propulsion systems.
