The Indian Navy has come up with the latest edition of its ‘Naval Aviation Indigenisation Road‘ (NAIR) for a three-year period till 2022, which includes spares and parts for its aviation assets including the Russian-origin MiG-29K variants and the US-made P8I maritime surveillance aircraft from Boeing Co. The 160-page document titled ‘Naval Aviation Indigenisation Road map (2019-22)’ encompasses approximately 575 items of flight and non-flight critical nature.

The approximate quantity of the items required is also mentioned in this document, for the benefit of the indigenisation partners. The Indian Navy published the first version of the Naval Aviation Indigenisation Road map (2017-22) in Oct. 2017. The roadmap was shared through extensive interactions held across more than 10 cities, with many industries, academia, incubators, federations, chambers, associations of industries and other agencies keen on design and development of aircraft components, ground support equipment and other items related to aircraft maintenance.


Since the indigenisation process of aviation spares is governed by stringent procedures, a ‘Naval Aviation Indigenisation Guidebook‘ was also released in May 2018 to serve as a ready-reference and primer for agencies keen on undertaking indigenisation. The first version of the NAIR has now been revised after taking into consideration the changing requirements, based on various factors such as user demands, actual consumption, availability, strength and expertise of domestic industries. Photographs of components, where available, and their nature such as flight or non-flight critical, have also been mentioned, aircraft-wise.

The two Naval Aircraft Yards (NAYs) at Kochi and Goa, along with the Naval Aircraft Servicing and Development Organisation (NASDO) at Goa, continue to spearhead aviation’s indigenisation efforts. NAY (Goa) is responsible for Russian-origin spares, NAY (Kochi) for western-origin spares and NASDO focuses on common equipment.

These organisations are known as the ‘In-house Indigenisation Committees (IICs)’. The industry may identify the items they can indigenise and directly approach the respective IIC to initiate the process. The projects can then be pursued under Revenue procurement route or through ‘Make-II‘ of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) or other appropriate channels, according to Indian Navy officials. The NAIR is expected to drive the government’s ‘Make in India‘ initiative and the concerted efforts of the stakeholders would ensure indigenous availability of required equipment and self-reliance.