Glimpses from Day 1 at Aero India 2025 at the Yelahanka air base in Bengaluru, India, February 10, 2025.
Admiral Puri says it would be wasteful to buy a foreign helicopter, pay for transfer of technology, and develop manufacturing capability in an Indian private sector strategic partner when all this already exists with HAL.
With Aero India 2009 around the corner -- India's biggest-ever air expo, scheduled from February 11 to 15 -- HAL is readying to hand over, ahead of schedule, its first-ever export order won in a competitive contract, run last year by Ecuador for seven helicopters.
India will replace its military personnel operating three aviation platforms in the Maldives with 'competent' Indian technical personnel even as New Delhi asserted that it remained an important development partner of the island nation.
The four-day event, which will conclude on March 11, saw many foreign aircraft companies display their flying machines. Rediff.com's Venkata Sathish gives a preview.
'It appears that Prime Minister Modi has to undo 50 years of State monopoly in the defence sector during which public undertakings like HAL or DRDO monopolised defence production and development with disastrous consequences.'
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