“Each HAL-built Su-30MKI fighter costs around $70.3 million, where as a Russia-supplied fighter costs around $42.15 million,” the senior Air Force official said.
That’s hogwash. Russian built MKIs were not $42.15 million. I’ve seen figures varying as much as between $47 million to $55 million. As for the local content, a lot of it is tied to the way the contract was negotiated. Where Russian sourced parts were far cheaper than setting up a factory for them, where economies of scale didn’t make it economical to do it in India. As for raw material, most were sourced from Russia and then fabricated into parts. can’t see anything wrong with that unless HAL has viable suppliers for those in India ready to supply them with the raw materials.
And anyway, HAL may charge what it does, the profits mostly end up with the GoI since they are a public sector company. It’s not like the money is flowing out of the country into some foreign entity’s accounts.
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