The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is likely to clear a budget of over Rs 14,000 Crore for the development of four prototypes of the twin-engine deck based fighters (TEDBF) for the Indian Navy (IN).
The design for the naval fighter has been completed by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) under the Department of Defence Research and Development (DRDO).
This design will be used by the DPSU Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to manufacture the prototypes of the same. The IN has projected a requirement of about 60 such fighter aircraft.
These are to be deployed on the recently-inducted INS Vikrant aircraft carrier. Once the budget for the development of the prototypes is cleared, an order for the same will be given to HAL immediately for the development of the prototypes.