Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) chairman and managing director R Madhavan said the public sector company was working on 10 to 12 tonne category of helicopters, which could potentially replace the MIG-17s after their retirement.

Madhavan told CNBC-TV18 at Defence Expo in Lucknow that the company has identified several countries for exports in parts of Asia, Africa and also the United States of America.

Madhavan said: "We have identified certain target countries both in South East Asia, West Asia, Africa, as well as, some in South America."

"Most of the projects till now we have been handling through our own internal resources. Some of them are with government money. "

The company is also looking at bigger projects, some of them are through DRDO like LCA Mark 2, Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), the HAL CMD said.

"We also look at certain projects of our own that is IMRH which is about 10-12 tonne category of helicopter and which is our next major investment into R&D and it is meant for replacement of MIG-17 and when they retire from service."

On capex, he said: "Capex is a problem for us because of tight financial situation due to trade receivables being more but we feel that it is only a temporary issue for us. So we will be keeping our capex flowing at same rate at what we have been doing till now."