Much to the delight of the aerospace fraternity in India, the country’s own fighter aircraft — the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas — flew at the three-day Bahrain International Air Show. Perhaps buoyed by its performance and favourable reaction, India’s Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar said on the same day that full-scale production would begin by next year and that other countries have shown interest in the fighter plane.

As far as the Bahrain show is concerned, according to Chairman and Manging Director of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), T. Suvarna Raju, two Limited Series Production (LSP) aircraft took part. The performance covered aerobatic manoeuvres in what is called 8-g pull, vertical loop, slow fly past, and barrel roll in defence parlance. He also pointed out that HAL, which is associated with the design, development and production of Tejas, has set-up a state-of-the-art, environmentally-controlled division in Bengaluru for the production of LCAs and expected to roll-out soon.

However, what is of significance is, participation of this kind brings less-known names to the attention of international customers and media. There is no doubt that for countries facing huge defence manufacturing challenges, it is important that their products — helicopters, trainers, transport and fighter aircraft, and drones of various kinds — must be demonstrated at international air shows to impress upon those who are in need of these products.

The defence sector is completely dominated by Western powers, thanks to their robust manufacturing, research and technology set-ups. Aerospace is a complex area with zero tolerance for the smallest error. While Western countries remain in the forefront, Asia at best could be described as a laggard as it was unable to overcome the investment and technological challenges peculiar to the aerospace sector.

It takes years, even decades, for one product to get accepted in an unforgiving market. Today, although things have improved, these countries are aware that there is still some distance to go to match the skill-sets and R&D set-ups that exist in defence manufacturing in the US or France.

According to one estimate, 54 per cent of India’s population is under 30 years and the ratio of the population in the working age group of 15-59 years is likely to be 64 per cent by 2021. India will thus approximately have 25 per cent of the world’s total workforce by 2025.

One needs to exploit this by creating the right opportunities in different sectors — aerospace is one of them.

It is true that for most of developing countries, it is daunting to aggregate the skill requirements of the industry, address the sub-sectors and regional requirements keeping line with international trends and best practices. But whatever the challenges Asia faces, it is welcome sign that countries like India have debuted in a critical segment such as fighter aircraft.

Tejas is a single-engined, lightweight, highly agile, multi-role supersonic fighter. It is a 4.5 generation aircraft with supersonic capability at all altitudes. It is fly-by-wire and has an open architecture computer for avionics and better weapon and combat capability. With advanced avionics, the pilot load is also reduced.

Already, the Sarang helicopter display team of the Indian Air Force — that flies four HAL-produced Dhruv helicopters — has enthralled visitors at different places including Bahrain. HAL Dhruv is suitable for increased payload at higher altitudes and has been developed for the Indian defence Forces. More than 200 helicopters have been produced so far, cumulatively clocking around 142,000 hours of flying.

In future, one hopes there will be more opportunities to showcase new variants of ‘Make in India’ copters.

Considering that for any Asian country, buying a plane or a helicopter from the West comes at a very heavy price, cost-effective fighters and helicopters manufactured in Asia are bound to impress the potential customers. It also means enormous pressure on those involved in the process ... but then that is the nature of the defence business.

The future course would depend on how the aerospace manufacturing ecosphere evolves in Asia and India in particular. One hopes the Bahrain show paves the way for an Asian emergence, at least on a small scale at the international level.

The writer is Chief of Media Communications at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. The views expressed are his own.