NEW DELHI: US aerospace giant GE (General Electric) Aerospace on Wednesday said it shipped four F404-IN20 engines to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in September, taking the total supplied for the Tejas Mk-1A programme to 14. The state-run planemaker is racing to get the long-delayed fighter into service with the Indian Air Force (IAF).
"GE Aerospace shipped four F404-IN20 engines in September 2026. We remain focused on delivering the engines needed to power India's Tejas indigenous fighter jets," a GE Aerospace spokesperson said.
The consignment follows three engines in August. Supplies have picked up after engine shortages emerged as the principal bottleneck holding up Mk-1A production.
The announcement of the shipment also comes just days after IAF chief Air Chief Marshal A P Singh warned that the prolonged Tejas MK1A delays were hurting the force. "It is going to hurt us," he said on Saturday. With the MiG-21s retired, the IAF is down to 29 fighter squadrons against a sanctioned 42.5. Singh said the force needs to induct 36-40 fighters a year to arrest the decline.
The engine crunch is running alongside final integration and certification work. As reported earlier by TNIE, two to three minor issues with the Israeli EL/M-2052 AESA radar remain to be resolved ahead of a final IAF-HAL review after mid-October. The jet will then need clearance from the military airworthiness regulator CEMILAC.
The engines are being supplied under a Rs 5,375-crore contract in 2021 for 99 F404-IN20 engines for the first 83 Mk-1As. The first engine arrived only in March last year, after GE restarted an F404 production line that had been dormant for around five years. Deliveries of the jets were originally due to begin in February 2024.
In the financial year ended March this year, GE supplied six engines against a revised commitment of 11. HAL now expects to have 22 engines by year-end if supplies stay on schedule. That would require eight more deliveries between October and December.
HAL has been imposing liquidated damages on GE for the delays. It has the capacity to build 24 Mk-1As a year but cannot hand over aircraft to the IAF without production-standard engines.
HAL is targeting the first squadron of 16-18 Mk-1As by March 2027. That is more jets than the 14 engines it has received so far.
In total, the IAF has contracted 180 Mk-1As in two tranches. HAL has also signed with GE for another 113 F404 engines for the second batch of 97 jets, due between 2027 and 2032.