I am still hoping that a second line of production for LCA does become a reality. But i firmly believe this line should be in private sector not a PSU. The reason being a Pvt sector Aerospace industry as of today has no major experience as compared to our single lead integrator, manufacturer or assembler like HAL.
It makes sense to me that HAL uses a grandfather role and makes sure a pvt sector company can step up the steep curve and produce jets at par with them and goes on to become a good second line of manufacturing.
The biggest benefit out of this could be 16x2 = 32 jets productivity per year and allows IAF low cost light fighter fleet number shoring to 300+ LCAs from present order of 120s which surely will increase with delivery and performance of Mark1A
Yet the handholding/grandfathering scheme works in the longer run to provide necessary experience to pvt sector part.
An important part would be how much of OEM can be localised over time. If India wants a robust MIC then i do see this part percentage to move much higher from present levels. Certain aspects we cannot do much like Jet engines or Cobham Nose cone etc as we dont have the expertise or technology in house but we should strive and see how we can develop them in house.
A sureshot request from my side would be development of Kaveri family uprated engine under a new name which should be targeted to eventually power up the last 100s of LCA and one day become the full fledged replacement of GE 404. The road is long but we should be able to do that with hard work and sound investments over time.
