MOSCOW. Dec 7 (Interfax-AVN) - India has all the required technologies for licensed production of the Russian AL-31FP engines at its enterprises, thinks Yury Lastochkin, director general of the Salyut Research and Production Association.
"The engine building enterprises of India already make engines of not only national, but foreign makes. I do not doubt that India can produce AL-31FP engines to equip its SU-30MKI aircraft on its own," Lastochkin told a Tuesday news conference in Moscow in response to a question from Interfax-Military News Agency.
He noted that a whole new engine building plant is under construction in India for licensed production of AL-31FP engines.
However, he said that the process of mastering engine-building technologies is very difficult. In order to produce the AL-31FP, the Indian enterprises will need at least five years, which means that a totally Indian AL-31FP can be expected no sooner than 2010.
According to him, the licensed production of the engines will consist of several stages. At the first stage, the engines will be assembled at the Russian Ufa engine building plant. Then they will be disassembled and shipped to India, where they will be reassembled and tested. "This is a common practice of mastering engine building technologies," he said.