'No proposal under consideration': Defence Ministry on penalties reported to be issued on GE over fighter jet engines delay

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Defence Ministry on Tuesday issued a clarification on possible penalties that could be imposed on General Electric Co. for severe delays in the delivery of jet engines that power the country’s light-combat aircraft.

«It has been noted that some media organisations have carried a story that India plans to impose penalties on General Electric for delay in delivery of Tejas engines. The story is factually incorrect as there was no such proposal under consideration. The contract is between HAL and GE,» said a defence ministry official.
Just last year, GE had signed a memorandum of understanding with Hindustan Aeronautics to produce an advanced version of the jet engines for India’s next generation light-combat aircraft.

Earlier on Tuesday, Bloomberg had reported that the Indian government will impose penalties on General Electric Co. for severe delays in the delivery of jet engines that power the country’s light-combat aircraft. As per the report, delivery of the F404 engines for Indian Air Force’s locally-made Tejas Light Combat Aircraft Mk1 series was pushed back to March 2025. The supply of the engines were supposed to start by 2023, according to India’s state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., which signed a $716 million deal with GE in 2021 for 99 F404 engines.

Fighter jet delays:

The first aircraft will be delivered with Category B engines, which are either previously used or sourced from earlier agreements with General Electric (GE) for the Tejas series. New General Electric F404-IN20 engines, essential for