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Next week, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL),
Nashik will complete the
first ever overhaul of a Sukhoi-30MKI fighter. HAL’s test pilots will
now test-fly the aircraft to ensure it has emerged from the overhaul as
good as new. Indian Air Force (IAF) chief, Air Chief Marshal Subir Raha,
has been invited to Nashik next month to accept the overhauled fighter
back into his combat fleet.
HAL’s new overhauling facility will save the IAF hundreds of crores of
rupees, while giving leases of life to its Su-30MKIs. Not even Russia
overhauls this fighter, a process that involves stripping it to its bare
bones, checking every system and sub-system, replacing numerous
components, and then reassembling the fighter anew.
A Su-30MKI is overhauled after flying 1,500 hours or 14 years, whichever
is earlier. Over its total service life of 6,000 flying hours or 30-40
years, each fighter undergoes three overhauls. Eventually, the IAF’s
fleet of 272 Su-30MKIs will undergo 816 overhauls – three per fighter.
HAL officials say overhauling in India costs far less than what
“original equipment manufacturers” or OEMs, charge – typically 35-40 per
cent of the cost of a brand new fighter.
“OEMs usually price new fighters reasonably, but make their money by
charging heavily for repair and overhaul. Establishing overhaul
capability in India defeats this pricing strategy,” says Wing Commander
Neelu Khatri, a former IAF logistics specialist.
HAL Nashik also stands to benefit from business from other air forces
that operate the Su-30. Says a MoD official; “Nashik is the world’s only
overhaul facility for the Su-30MKI. Potentially, it could get overhaul
orders from countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, Algeria, etc, which fly
variants of the Su-30″.
Through years of building the Su-30MKI, HAL Nashik has gradually
mastered the expertise that makes it one of the world’s most feared
fighters. Says the chief of HAL’s Nashik facility, S Subrahmanyan: “More
51 per cent of the Su-30MKI by value is currently made in India, a
little more than the 49 per cent agreed with Russia in the contract
signed in 2000 to build 140 fighters in India.
Of the 43,000 components that go into a Su-30MKI, 31,500 components – or
73 per cent – are now being built in India.
Further indigenisation is blocked since the Indo-Russian contract
mandates that all raw material that goes into the Su-30MKI – including
5,800 titanium blocks and forgings, aluminium and steel plates, etc –
must be sourced from Russia. The contract also stipulates that another
7,146 items like nuts, bolts, screws and rivets must be sourced from Russia.
HAL has also partially indigenised the Su-30MKI’s giant AL-31FP engines,
which are built in Koraput, Odisha. Fifty-three per cent of the engine
by cost has been indigenised, with the remaining 47 per cent consisting
of high-tech composites and special alloys – proprietary secrets that
Russia will not part with. Even so, HAL builds 87.7 per cent of the
engine’s components in India.
Given HAL, Nashik’s growing expertise, it is surprising that the
overhaul facility at Nashik has taken 14 years to overhaul its first
fighter. This is because the initial contract, signed in 2000 for
building 140 fighters in India, did not include provisions for overhaul
– a mistake, say contract lawyers.
The delay was compounded because Russia itself has no Su-30 overhaul
facility (the Russian Air Force did not buy the fighter until well after
India). Only in 2008 did New Delhi and Moscow sign an overhaul contract.
Until last year, aircraft parts and systems were going to Russia for
overhaul.
In 2010, the first IAF Su-30MKI fighters, which had joined the fleet in
2000, were due for overhaul, in accordance with the original schedule,
which was 1,500 flying hours or 10 years. Since the fighters had flown
far less than 1,500 hours, Sukhoi was approached to extend the time
period between overhaul. After numerous inspections and “accelerated
aging tests”, Sukhoi revised the overhaul schedule to 1,500 flying hours
or 14 years, whichever comes first.
“The MoD has sanctioned an overhaul capacity of 15 fighters per year;
next year, we will overhaul 10-12 fighters and then stabilise at 15
fighters annually. We have already approached the MoD to step up
capacity to 30 fighters per year, which will cater for our requirements
into the 2030s” says Subrahmanyan.
Of the 30 Su-30MKIs that will be overhauled each year, HAL will do 20,
while an IAF base repair depot will overhaul the other 10.
Source :
First Sukhoi-30 overhauled at Nashik, highlights HAL’s growing capability | idrw.org
