NEW DELHI — Pilatus plans to establish a manufacturing facility in India, as the country looks at acquiring more aircraft from the Swiss aircraft maker. The facility will initially manufacture airframes for its single-engine turboprop PC-12 aircraft. “This will be our third support facility for PC-12 aircraft, the other two being in Portugal and Poland. It will be part of our offset commitment in India,” says Pilatus Vice President Jim Roche. Plans call for shipping the airframes to Switzerland for final assembly.

NEW DELHI — India is in the final stages of developing a guided bomb and is likely to deploy the indigenously made kit on its fighter aircraft by the end of 2014. Developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), the “glide bombs” are designed to improve the accuracy of air-to-ground bombing by the Indian air force (IAF). Several tests have been performed both through simulation and flight tests over the last few years to reach the required performance levels of precision attacks, Ravi Gupta, DRDO spokesman, tells Aviation Week.

NEW DELHI — Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony has set a deadline of the end of 2014 for the country’s indigenously developed Tejas Light Combat Aircraft to obtain its final operational clearance (FOC). Developed by the Defense and Research Development Organization’s (DRDO) Aeronautical Development Agency and manufactured at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the Tejas has faced delays over more than two decades. It will have to attain final operational clearance (FOC) before being inducted into the Indian air force (IAF).