SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
Dr. V Madhusudana Rao, Project Director for the LCA AF-MK2 has confirmed that due to delays in the official grant to the program, a rollout that was supposed to have happened by December 2022 will now be pushed to December 2023, and the first flight in 2024. LCA AF-MK2 due to delays will have 82% indigenous content when rolled out instead of the 75% that was planned earlier.
idrw.org has been told that MoD and IAF asked for more indigenous content to avoid further disturbance in the supply chain as a road map for production-ready LCA AF-MK2 will have indigenous content nearing 90%.
Fabrication of the first LCA AF-MK2 aircraft already had started but delays in grant plus pressure to increase indigenous content mid-way meant delays in rollout were inventable. Rao confirmed that the aircraft even with its first flight in late 2024 will be ready to enter production in late 2028-29 as the first aircraft itself will be near production-ready aircraft reducing considerable changes in aircraft from the first to the fourth aircraft that will be developed only for the flight and developmental trials of the program.
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