PUNE, OCT 17: The much delayed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), India's homespun version of a jet fighter, may actually fly. In the tradition of his predecessors, Minister of State for Defence Harin Pathak too promised on Tuesday that the LCA could fly before the year was out.In fact, so confident was the minister that he even promised that after a period of intensive trials it could even be pressed for production. In the same breath the minister even promised that something could also be happening on the other front. The MBT Arjun could also see some push, though he declined to commit any specific time periods. ``These are advanced weapon systems and we have to ensure the best for the Defence forces,'' he said.Pathak, who was on a three-day visit to the ordnance factories in and around Pune met the various officials to optimise production in these facilities. Already Rs 202 crore have been allocated for the upgradation of the plant and machinery at these facilities.In the ninth and 10th defence perspective plan, the Ammunition Factory, Khadki (AFK) gets the lion's share with Rs 50.98 crore in the ninth plan and Rs 74.6 crore in the 10th.Similarly the neighbouring High Explosive Factory gets Rs 13.95 crore and Rs 53.23 crore in the next perspective plan. The Ordnance factory at Dehu Road has been allocated a total of little over Rs 10 crore fort their upgradation.With the minister assuring that the indigenisation has gone up to nearly 75 per cent in this filed, the production had also gone up significantly. According to R Shivprasad, senior general manager, AFK, the factory has achieved a 75 million rounds of the 5.56 calibre ammunition. Incidentally, this is the new ammunition that is being distributed to troops in all frontline areas for the newly inducted INSAS rifle. The same will get a further boost as the AFK has set a target of adding another 50 million rounds to the existing production capacity.Doing a quick round up of the deals signed with Russia during president Vladimir Putin's visit, Pathak mentioned that of the 150 SU-30s MKI being purchased from Russia, 100 would see assembly line production in India.Of the others, the air defence ship, the Admiral Gorshkov was being ``gifted'' to India and 320 T-90 tanks were also being inducted to bolster India's armour.Meanwhile the Ministry of Defence is also talking to the Confederation of Indian Industry for to meet defence requirements. ``We are trying to cut down on imports so if the industry can help us, then we would be interested,'' said Pathak.As far as taking on the Pakistani nuclear threat was concerned the minister assured that ``we were ready to face any threat.'' Asked about getting a nuclear command structure, the minister declined to give any details but said that ``we will prove ourselves in case of a strike.''As far as security and safety aspects of the Ordnance factories and deports was concerned in the light of the recent fires at Bharatpur and closer home at Dehu Road, he said that ``we are looking into the matter.'' All measures were being undertaken to ensure that there was no recurrence he assured.The MiG 21 crashes that were taking place at regular intervals would be dealt with ``a court of inquiry,'' said the minister. ``The are usually due to human error, bird hits or technical snags,'' he pointed out. When asked about when the Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer would be inducted to train the pilots better, he said that the deal would be signed in two month's time.