On the backdrop of maintenance support contracts of a few western aircraft with the Indian Armed Forces coming to an end, the Ministry of Defence (MoD), India is taking steps to engage the domestic industry to set up repair and overhaul facilities for Western aircraft.
And, for this purpose capability assessment is currently underway by the Defence Ministry in order to understand the available infrastructure along with the future plans of Indian companies interested in setting up of repair and overhaul facilities.
Further, the Defence Ministry is undertaking meeting with the Indian companies, and once the capability assessment is complete, steps would be taken to hand over contracts.
The ongoing exercise is being undertaken before the contracts are renewed with the original manufacturers.
The aircrafts that are expected to brought under this initiative includes of Rafale, the C 130J transport aircraft and the Chinook and Apache helicopters.
Noteworthy, the Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh in February 2023 called for joint efforts to develop India as a Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) hub.
Further, it was also proposed that there should at least be 50 per cent of indigenous content when it comes to support and maintenance of the new systems which are being acquired.
Worth mentioning, the cost incurred on the repair and overhaul support for military platforms through their service life can extend to twice or thrice the initial purchase price.
Keeping this in mind, this initiative will bound to help India is saving a lot over the MRO activities undertaken by foreign OEMs.
