It has been over a week since India carried out the surgical strike 2 on Balakot in Pakistan to eliminate the Jaish-E-Mohammed terror camps. Following that, the fake news circulation regarding the incident, people involved and mechanisms used has been on a hike. It is a downfall for Indian media as many people took social media to share fake news and news agencies stating unverified news. One of the many fake news was the claim by several people and news organisations that the Mirage 2000 ( a fighter jet ) used in the surgical strike 2 was made by HAL. This specific false information was shared by many verified users and mainstream news channels such as NEWS 18, India Times, Scroll, etc.

A social activist Pankhuri Pathak tweeted "Take a bow #Mirage2000! Take a bow HAL".

When pointed out that HAL doesn't make Mirage2000, she replied:

FYI - The 12 Indian Air Force Mirage-2000 fighter jets that carried the #AirStrike at #Balakot were manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under license from Dassault Aviation, the French company who also manufactures the Rafale Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircrafts.

She then attached the screenshot of reports of WION and News 18 to substantiate her claim that Mirage 2000 was manufactured by HAL.

Another user Garga Chatterjee made a similar claim on Twitter.

Did HAL manufacture the Mirage 2000 used in the Surgical Strike 2?

Looking into the history of Mirage 2000, it can be seen that it was first purchased from Dassault in October 1982 as 36 single-seat Mirage 2000Hs and 4 twin-seat Mirage 2000THs.

Joint production was planned with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited ( HAL ) after negotiations were made to purchase 150 aircraft but this did not happen because the number of aircraft ordered by India was very less for joint production. India was also provided with an option to produce Mirage 2000 under license but this was taken away because of the country’s close association with the Soviet Union. After the success of Mirage 2000 in the Kargil war in 1999, India placed more orders of the jet in the following years. It can be clearly seen that over the years India has only ever purchased the fighter jets but has never manufactured them.

Ref: India Today

However, the confusion arises with the involvement of HAL with regard to Mirage 2000. HAL does manufacture some fighter jets under license from their respective manufacturers such as the Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighter plane under license from Russia but Mirage 2000 is not one of them. This is pretty evident because all 54 Mirage 2000 fighter jets purchased by India were made by Dassault Aviation. Though after the initial purchase of 40 jets, plans were made to produce 110 more in India under license from HAL. But this never happened and it can also be seen that India proceeded to buy 10 more Mirage 2000 jets from Dassault Aviation later. However, HAL does look upon the maintenance and up-gradation of the Mirage 2000s. This can be confirmed by just visiting the HAL website. Clicking on the ‘products’ option under the ‘What we do’ section it can be seen that Mirage 2000 is not mentioned.

However, under the ‘service’ option, the Mirage is mentioned and it is stated that the Overhaul division in Bangalore has been maintaining and upgrading fighter jets including the Mirage 2000 for a long time now. Quoting the HAL website, “With such extensive and efficient facilities, we are able to provide total Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Support to aircraft ranging from Piston-Engine aircraft to the State-of-the-Art aircraft like Mirage 2000 ”. 

The spread of false rumour might have been started to accuse the present government of removing HAL from that the contract signed with Dassault for 36 Rafale fighters. This false sharing of information and accusation of the Modi government was mainly started and supported by Congress and its supporters. It was not until long ago when Rahul Gandhi claimed that the Mirage 2000 as “HAL-built”.