India's air force will phase out many of its Western-made fighter jets and rely more on indigenous planes such as its planned "Tejas", a light combat aircraft, the nation's air force chief said on Wednesday.
Russia and Israel are the main arms suppliers to India, which has the world's fourth-largest air force.
"Our intention is to go as much as possible within our own stable. We shall have our own airframe and our own engine," Air Marshal S. Krishnaswamy told reporters during an Asian air show in Singapore.
India is designing and developing "Tejas" along with a light combat helicopter. It already makes Russian fighters under licence and aims to produce a jet engine, Krishnaswamy said.
A $1.7 billion deal to acquire about 60 Hawk trainer jets from Britain's BAE Systems Plc would be signed within a month but those would ultimately be phased out and replaced with an India-developed product, he said.
He side-stepped concerns over the poor safety record of his department. About 170 Russian-made MiGs have crashed in the past decade and more than 40 pilots have been killed over the same period, mostly in MiG-21 crashes.
Indian media sometimes call the planes "flying coffins".
"For the Indian air force, it's an important asset. There are of course unique issues, which are sometimes infrastructure based. We are addressing those and we will certainly improve," he said.
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