Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has signed a $300mn deal with Russian company Stankoimport for purchasing equipment to produce the advanced Sukhoi Su-30MKI multi-role fighter jets at its Nasik plant.
The contract has been signed within the framework of the Indo-Russian deal for the licensed production of 140 'four-plus' generation Sukhoi multi-role fighters in India and phase out the production of MiG-21 and MiG-27 fighters by HAL.
Stankoimport said in a release on Thursday that the equipment to be supplied to India would be of 'general industrial purpose' - meaning that it does not fall into banned items under Russia's international non-proliferation obligations.
Under the $3.5bn Sukhoi license deal inked in October 2000, Moscow-based aero-engine design bureau Lyulka-Saturn and Bashkiria-based Ufa engine plant (UMPO) will transfer full technical documentation and technology to HAL for production of the AL-31FP thrust-vectoring engines for the Su-30MKI.
The work for the transfer of technology and production of AL-31FP engines in India at Koraput (Orissa) is already underway, an official of Lyulka-Saturn said in Moscow.
