US engine maker General Electric (GE) has supplied three more F404 engines for the Tejas Mark-1A fighter jets being produced by India’s public-sector company, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).With these three additional engines, HAL now has 10 F404 engines for Tejas Mark-1A. Nearly 24 airframes of the fighter are ready at HAL’s hangars and are awaiting engines.In a statement on Thursday, General Electric said, “GE Aerospace shipped three F404-IN20 engines to HAL in August 2026.” Official sources at HAL confirmed the development and said the company now has ten engines available.There has been a delay in the supply of engines by GE. The Ministry of Defence (MoD), which holds a majority stake in HAL, had flagged the issue with the US government last year. The engines delivered now are part of a contract signed in January 2021 between HAL and GE for USD 716 million to supply 99 engines for the 83 Tejas Mark-1A jets ordered by MoD for the Indian Air Force (IAF).Supplies were scheduled to begin in April 2023 at the rate of 16 engines a year. Consequently, HAL was expected to begin delivering the jets to IAF in March 2024.HAL Chairman and Managing Director K Ravi had visited GE’s plant in the US earlier this year and was assured that 20 engines would be supplied in the second half of the calendar year, between June and December.India imports engines for its indigenous fighter jet, Tejas. With more than 500 jets expected to be produced domestically over the next 15-17 years, the absence of a sovereign engine capability, as well as the possibility of delayed supplies by foreign companies, represents a strategic handicap.The prevailing technology gap has come to define and complicate all major fighter-jet acquisition programmes being pursued by New Delhi.Despite the delays in engine supplies, HAL signed a fresh agreement worth USD 1 billion with General Electric in October last year to source 113 more engines for an additional order of 97 Tejas Mark-1A jets.The 113 engines are intended for the 97 Tejas jets, for which MoD signed a contract with HAL in August last year.The contract for the 97 jets is in addition to the 83 aircraft already ordered, taking the total order for Tejas Mark-1A jets to 180.