Hindustan Aeronautics Limited

Take, for example, the SSLV, ISRO's compact rocket for small satellites.

ISRO designed it, tested it, and got it flying, and then it ran a competition, and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited won the rights to manufacture and sell it commercially.

Now, neither ISRO nor DRDO were particularly designed to make use of a factory floor.

Yet, this doesn't seem to solve one pressing question.

Yeah.

I actually did not know what HAL was until I started going to Bangalore, and I would often go to establishments on the old HAL road.

So one day I looked it up, I was like, "Okay, this is Hindustan Aeronautics Limited." I got intrigued.

What I've been able to gather is that Tejas a- aircraft is in ...

Uh, no. Firstly, let me tell you-

Mm-hmm

... that, uh, HAL is a good aircraft.

It's, it's a good aircraft.

But in some ways, they've done some very smart things.

One is neutering the hell out of Hindustan Aeronautics, because they were the ones that killed the original Rafale deal, what, 10 years ago, whenever it was, by demanding full production rights.

But – Also demanding that SO take responsibility, legal responsibility for all work done in aeronautics.

So, you know, oh, my God.

Did that hot mic moment cause a flutter in

HAL? I'm grateful for that hot mic moment because it gives us a peek behind the curtain.

2038, if nothing goes wrong, is when you've got LCA Mark II fielded in good strength.

Angad's been on my show so many times.

I think they called it something else.

They called it...

SOC 18 or something like that, you know, SOC 2018, SOP 2018, the statement, what was SOP for? Standard of Preparation 2018 was this aircraft that HAL and Manohar Parrikar was minister of defense then and, you know, he believed that this could be done, that, you know, we'll freeze the LCA where it is.

We're not going to spend more time trying to fix it.

Mm-hmm.

Historically, Hindustan Aeronautics has struggled with delivery delays from General Electric for the Tejas fighter jet engines.

By pairing Rolls-Royce's propulsion expertise with Reliance's manufacturing scale, India is attempting to bypass those supply chain vulnerabilities entirely.

Exactly.